Donald Trump suggests China and Russia should join US for arms control talks
- US president floats offer of talks once trade war is settled, but it is unclear whether Beijing will respond to his overtures
US President Donald Trump has suggested that China and Russia should join America in discussing arms controls once Washington and Beijing have settled their trade war.
Moscow responded on Friday that the idea deserved attention and further discussion. There has been no immediate official response from Beijing, but analysts said China was unlikely to accept Trump’s proposal.
Addressing this year’s 40th anniversary of the establishment of formal Washington-Beijing diplomatic relations in 1979, Trump told reporters at the White House that the relationship remained “strong” and that the two countries “can do a lot of things militarily also”.
“Between Russia and China and us, we’re all making hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of weapons, including nuclear [weapons], which is ridiculous,” Trump said.
The US has the world’s highest military budget – standing at US$643 billion last year, followed by China, Saudi Arabia and Russia, according to the British think tank the International Institute for Strategic Studies.