China said Wednesday that it would not participate in denuclearisation talks with the United States and Russia, after President Donald Trump said he hoped to include Beijing in negotiations.
Trump on Monday said the United States was trying to pursue denuclearisation with both countries.
“I think denuclearisation is a very big aim. But Russia’s willing to do it, and I think China is going to be willing to do it too,” Trump said on Monday. “We can’t let nuclear weapons proliferate. We have to stop nuclear weapons.”
Russia and the U.S. now possess almost 90% of the world’s nuclear weapons, but Moscow pulled out of the last remaining arms control agreement with Washington in 2023.
However, Beijing’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Guo Jiakun said it was “neither reasonable nor realistic” to expect China to participate in trilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations with the U.S. and Russia.
“China and the U.S. are not at the same level at all in terms of nuclear capabilities. The countries with the largest nuclear arsenal should earnestly fulfil their special and primary responsibility for nuclear disarmament,” Guo told reporters.
Beijing says it supports nuclear disarmament in principle, yet it has repeatedly turned down Washington’s invitations to take part in U.S.-Russian negotiations on reducing their arsenals.
