Donald Trump tells Vladimir Putin he hopes to avoid US-Russia-China nuclear arms race
- Beijing has so far rejected pressure to join Washington and Moscow in talks, citing its smaller arsenal
- Leaders also discussed need for ‘collective action’ on Iran’s nuclear programme
US President Donald Trump told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Thursday that he hopes to avoid an “expensive” arms race with Russia and China, the White House said.
Washington and Moscow are preparing negotiations on a successor to the New Start treaty capping their countries’ nuclear arsenals.
However, China has so far rejected pressure from the Trump administration to join the talks, saying that its arsenal is far smaller than that of the two former Cold War foes.
In a call with Putin, Trump “reiterated his hope of avoiding an expensive three-way arms race between China, Russia, and the United States and looked forward to progress on upcoming arms control negotiations in Vienna”, a White House spokesman said.
According to the Kremlin, the two leaders confirmed the “urgency” of holding bilateral talks on “strategic stability and arms control”.