China preferred not to take part in the nuclear talks with the US and Russia, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang confirmed on Tuesday.
Donald Trump‘s hopes for trilateral disarmament talks were smashed after China’s rejecting to join the negotiations. Previously, three globe’s major atomic powers were going to discuss the latest developments and the North Korea’s nuclear plans but the trilateral talks tramsforms in bilateral meeting.
On Friday, the Russian president Vladimir Putin and his American counterpart have discussed the possibility of a new accord limiting nuclear arms. Donald Trump suggested the accord could eventually include China, however, the Asian nation’s foreign ministry confirmed that “China opposes any country talking out of turn about China on the issue of arms control”.
According to China’s foreign ministry, the nuclear forces were at the “lowest level” of its national security needs, and said they could not be compared to the Russia and the United States, the superpowers, which should reduce their nuclear weapons stockpiles before other countries participate.
New START expires 2021
The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (2011 New START) remains the only US-Russia arms control pact limiting deployed strategic nuclear weapons. The treaty expires in February 2021 but can be extended for five years if both sides agree.
Under START, the the two nuclear superpowers obliged to cut their deployed strategic nuclear warheads to no more than 1,550, the lowest level in decades.
The treaty also includes extensive transparency measures requiring each side to allow the other to carry out 10 inspections of strategic nuclear bases each year; give 48 hours notice before new missiles covered by the treaty leave their factories; and provide notifications before ballistic missile launches.
