NEW YORK: US president-elect Donald Trump, reaffirmed his remarks on nuclear arms expansion when asked by a reporter by saying “Let it be an arms race,” and that the United States would win it, MSNBC reported on Friday.

His remarks have set off alarms bells in capitals.

Trump had alarmed non-proliferation experts on Thursday with a Twitter post that said the United States “must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes.”

Mika Brzezinski who spoke with Trump on the phone in New York and asked him to expand on his tweet.

She said he responded: “Let it be an arms race. We will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all.”

Published in Dawn December 24th, 2016