Beijing — China said Wednesday that it would not participate in denuclearization talks with the United States and Russia, after President Trump said he hoped to include Beijing in negotiations.
Mr. Trump on Monday said the United States was trying to pursue denuclearization with both countries.
“I think the denuclearization is a very – it’s a big aim. But Russia’s willing to do it and I think China is going to be willing to do it too,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
“We can’t let nuclear weapons proliferate. We have to stop nuclear weapons,” he added.
Russia and the United States — former Cold War rivals — possess almost 90% of the world’s nuclear weapons between them, but Moscow pulled out of the last remaining arms control agreement with Washington in 2023.
When asked about Mr. Trump’s comments, Beijing’s foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said Wednesday it was “neither reasonable nor realistic” to expect China to participate in trilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations with the United States and Russia.
“China and the United States are not at the same level at all in terms of nuclear capabilities,” Guo told reporters.
“The countries with the largest nuclear arsenal should earnestly fulfil their special and primary responsibility for nuclear disarmament,” he said.
Beijing says it favors disarmament in principle but has regularly rejected Washington’s invitations to join US-Russian talks on reducing their nuclear arsenals.
According to 2024 estimates by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the United States has 3,708 nuclear warheads and Russia 4,380, excluding retired warheads. China had 500, 90 more than in 2023. Behind them were France, with 290, and Britain with 225.
Spectators wave Chinese flags as military vehicles carrying DF-41 nuclear ballistic missiles roll during a parade to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the founding of Communist China, in Beijing, Oct. 1, 2019. / Credit: Mark Schiefelbein/AP
Beijing said on Wednesday it maintains its nuclear forces “at the minimum level required for national security and does not engage in an arms race with any country.”
Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine has overshadowed most other issues in U.S.-Russian bilateral relations for several years, and there has been no significant public talk of ongoing negotiations over the countries’ respective nuclear weapons stockpiles.
When Putin formally rescinded Russia’s ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, or CTBT, in 2023, he said the action would “mirror” the stand taken by the U.S., which signed but never ratified the treaty.
The CTBT, adopted in 1996, bans all nuclear explosions anywhere in the world, but it was never fully implemented. In addition to the U.S., it has never been formally ratified by China, India, Pakistan, North Korea, Israel, Iran or Egypt.
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