BEIJING: China called on Washington and Moscow on Tuesday (Jan 28) to “further reduce” their nuclear arsenals as a precondition for its participation in potential disarmament talks called for by US President Donald Trump.
Trump said in a video address to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last week that “we’d like to see denuclearisation”, and reiterated his desire for three-way talks with Russia and China.
The day after Trump’s Davos address, Russia said it wanted to resume bilateral nuclear disarmament talks “as soon as possible”, and that “the ball is in the Americans’ court”.
The former Cold War rivals possess almost 90 per cent of the world’s nuclear weapons between them, but Moscow pulled out of the last remaining arms control agreement with Washington in 2023 amid a sharp deterioration in relations.
“The two nuclear powers with the largest nuclear arsenals should conscientiously fulfil their special … responsibilities for nuclear disarmament,” the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement sent to AFP on Tuesday.
They must “further substantially reduce their nuclear arsenals, so as to create the necessary conditions for other nuclear-weapon states to join the disarmament process”, it said.
Beijing says it favours 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 (SIPRI), 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 (290) and the UK (225).
Beijing reiterated on Tuesday that its arsenal was solely for “self-defence” and that it maintained its nuclear forces “at the minimum level required for national security”.