Robert Gates Warns of 2 Nuclear-armed Adversaries
Robert Gates said on May 17, 2026, that the United States faces nuclear-armed adversaries in both Europe and Asia, calling it “this is a very, very perilous time.” He made the remarks on Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan, where he also said China and Russia together could end up with nearly twice as many strategic nuclear warheads deployed as the United States.
Gates on China and Russia
Gates said, “For the first time in our history, we face nuclear-armed adversaries in both Europe and Asia.” He said that when China finishes its strategic nuclear modernization, China and Russia together will have nearly twice as many strategic nuclear warheads deployed as the United States.
He also said the United States has never faced a country with greater manufacturing and industrial capacity than the United States since the British Empire. Gates described China as technologically advanced, ahead of the United States in a few areas, behind in a few areas, and pretty much even in a few others.
Gates said China is a near peer but not yet equal to the United States. When asked whether the two countries are on equal footing, he answered, “I don't think so yet.” He added, “we still have a lead economically, we still have a lead technologically.”
Trump-Xi meeting
Gates said the administration’s main objective in the Trump-Xi meeting was to “keep a lid on the relationship” and “keep a floor under it so it doesn't deteriorate.” He said the goal was to continue the trade truce that had existed for about a year and to avoid a renewed escalation in the economic conflict.
He said that truce had been sustained “by and large” despite measures being traded back and forth. In his account, the meeting fit into a broader effort to steady a relationship that remains constrained by trade tensions and competition in technology and global influence.
CBS News updated the transcript at 10:24 AM EDT on May 17, 2026. The record leaves Gates’s warning at the center of the story: two nuclear-armed rivals, one in Europe and one in Asia, now sit inside the same security picture he described as perilous.
