U.S. President Donald Trump said Washington is holding talks with Russia and China on disarmament, saying China is racing to catch up with the two leading powers in warhead numbers.
Speaking in an interview with Newsmax on Thursday, Trump said the United States is discussing a path toward "denuclearization" with its counterparts. He said China — still far behind the U.S. and Russia in warhead numbers — would "catch up" within the next five years.
"This whole thing is so unfortunate, because I'd love to denuclearize if we could," Trump said. "We are actually talking to Russia about that, and we are talking to China about denuclearization."
According to Trump, China does not appear willing to disarm, but the talks are continuing. Newsmax reported that Trump had discussed the issue with Chinese President Xi Jinping, though no further details of the discussions with Russia or China were released.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Russia currently possesses the world's largest nuclear arsenal, with the United States close behind. The two countries together hold about 86% of the world's total nuclear weapons. China ranks third with roughly 620 warheads, after expanding its arsenal over the past year, but remains far below the more than 4,000 warheads held by the U.S. and Russia.
Trump's remarks came not long after the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) between the U.S. and Russia expired. A month after the treaty ended, French President Emmanuel Macron announced a Forward Deterrence Initiative as Russia stepped up nuclear threats in its war in Ukraine, alarming Europe.
Former Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans told Al Jazeera that the world has grown less concerned about the risk of nuclear weapons. "The world... has become alarmingly complacent about the risk of nuclear war when every major nuclear arms control agreement is dead, dying or on life support, and the long-standing taboo against threatening or using nuclear weapons is being eroded," he said.
