Key points
- Would like to engage with China and Russia: Trump
- Says in the first term, I was “very close” to brokering a denuclearisation deal with Russia
- Denuclearisation would be incredible: Trump
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has said that it would be “great” if world powers would do away with their nuclear arsenals, saying he would like to engage with China and Russia to do so.
“It’d be great if everybody would get rid of their nuclear weapons,” according to Turkish media Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “Russia and us have by far the most. China will have an equal amount within four or five years, and it would be great if we could all denuclearise, because the power of nuclear weapons is crazy. It’s crazy.”
Talks with President Xi Jinping
Trump said that during his first term, he was “very close” to brokering a denuclearisation deal with Russia, and said he also engaged in talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping about the matter, according to Turkish media.
“I would very much like to start those talks,” he said. “Denuclearisation would be incredible.”
AP reported on February 13 that Trump in his first term tried and failed to bring China into nuclear arms reduction talks when the US and Russia were negotiating an extension of a pact known as New START.
Cold War-era nuclear arsenals
Moscow suspended its participation in the treaty during the Biden administration, as the US and Russia continued on massive programs to extend the life-spans or replace their Cold War-era nuclear arsenals, according to AP.
VOA reported that just months before leaving office, former US President Joe Biden met with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the APEC summit in Peru where both agreed that decisions regarding the use of nuclear weapons should remain under human control.
