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Trump's decision to move nuclear submarines is 'rhetorical escalation', expert says

Donald Trump's decision to move two nuclear submarines closer to Russia is a "rhetorical escalation", a nuclear security expert has said.

Speaking to our presenter Anna Jones, Dr Ross Peel said: "This may be related to a signalling attempt, an attempt to send a message rather than to actually achieve anything different.

"It is absolutely a rhetorical escalation, that doesn't mean these rhetorical escalations cannot lead to military escalations, particularly if one side misinterprets what the other is trying to send."

But Peel said countries shouldn't be boasting about their nuclear capabilities and using them in a threatening way.

"It is very unusual for someone to publicly say roughly where nuclear submarines are," he said.

"The point of a nuclear weapons submarine is that we don't know where it is, and no one knows where it is in order to be able to strike back if your country is attacked."

Peel added that Trump kept his announcement "very vague", meaning we don't know the exact location of where the nuclear submarines would be.

Watch the full interview in the video below.