China is urging the United States to respond to Russia's offer of extending the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a briefing on Friday
BEIJING (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th July, 2020) China is urging the United States to respond to Russia's offer of extending the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a briefing on Friday.
"We urge the United States to respond to Russia's calls for an extension of the New START treaty and on this basis to further reduce its significant nuclear arsenal in order to create conditions for other nuclear states to participate in arms control negotiations," Zhao said.
US State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said on Thursday that the United States welcomed China's commitment to engage in the talks and would invite the Chinese delegation to the negotiations with Russia in Vienna. Washington has also recommended that China and Russia hold a meeting soon to discuss the next steps in order to launch trilateral discussions on arms control.
Director-General of the Chinese Foreign Ministry's Arms Control Department Fu Cong, in turn, said that Beijing was ready to join the negotiations with the United States and Russia if Washington agrees to reduce the number of its nuclear weapons to the level of China.
On June 22, Russia and the US launched talks in Vienna in an effort to rescue the New START, the last pact limiting the two countries' nuclear arsenals that is set to expire in February. China has repeatedly declined the invitation to join the talks, thwarting the United States' hopes of making them trilateral.
