Washington: We are trying to confront Russia and China’s activity and influence in the nuclear sector in Asia and Africa

US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said that the United States is trying to confront Russian and Chinese nuclear activity and their influence in Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

Granholm said in a joint statement with the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration, Jill Hruby, before the start of their hearings in Congress: “The National Nuclear Security Administration is paying increased attention to Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa in order to counter Russian and Chinese activity and influence in these regions.”

She added in the statement that to achieve this goal, “the ministry began cooperation with 16 new partners” during the past two years, but did not specify in which regions.

She noted that the Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration continue to work with countries that - as stated in the document - “seek to reject supplies of Russian high-quality, low-enriched uranium.”

Granholm and Hruby explained that, given the need to continue this work, they requested, among other things, $544 million from the United States budget for the fiscal year 2025.

In early February, the head of the US National Nuclear Security Administration, Hruby, said that the United States must be prepared to move, during the next decade, to simultaneous nuclear deterrence for both Russia and China .

American analyst Brandon Wehr previously suggested, in an article for The National Interest magazine, that the presence of modern missile weapons in Russia and China poses a strategic challenge to the US Navy in various oceans.