China is unlikely to join any nuclear arms agreement with Russia and the United States in the near future, before the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) expires in early 2021, Daryl Kimball, the executive director of the US-based Arms Control Association, told Sputnik on Wednesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th December, 2019) China is unlikely to join any nuclear arms agreement with Russia and the United States in the near future, before the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) expires in early 2021, Daryl Kimball, the executive director of the US-based Arms Control Association, told Sputnik on Wednesday."The chances are very low at this time. Beijing, Trump claims, is 'extremely excited about getting involved' and would 'certainly' be brought into such a deal. But there is no realistic possibility of concluding a new trilateral deal with Russia and China before New START expires in 2021. Negotiations would take time, and China would need to be interested in such a deal," Kimball said, when asked about the chances of China's joining a new nuclear arms control framework along with the US and Russia.
He also recalled that Beijing had repeatedly said it was interested in a numerical limits-based arms control deal, since it has just about 300 nuclear warheads, compared to over 6,000 that Russia and the US have each.
"A more realistic approach on China would be for the United States and Russia agree to extend New START, then begin talks on a follow-on treaty that sets limits well below those of New START if China, and perhaps France and the U.K. agree not to increase the size of its stockpile and adopt some transparency measures," Kimball said.
However, such an arrangement would be difficult to reach and would likely take years to achieve, he added.
New START is the last remaining arms control treaty in force between Russia and the United States. Signed in 2010, the pact stipulates that the number of strategic nuclear missiles launchers must be cut by half and limits the number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads to 1,550. Russia has repeatedly stated its readiness to extend the New START treaty without any preconditions, but the US is yet undecided about the extension.
