China has refused to join nuclear talks with the US and Russia, quashing Donald Trump‘s hopes for trilateral disarmament negotiations between the globe’s major atomic powers.
The US president said he and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin discussed on Friday the possibility of a new accord limiting nuclear arms. Mr Trump said the accord could eventually include China.
But Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said: “China opposes any country talking out of turn about China on the issue of arms control, and will not take part in any trilateral negotiations on a nuclear disarmament agreement.”
Mr Trump claimed China had “felt very strongly” during trade talks about joining the US and Russia in limiting nuclear weapons.
“So I think we’re going to probably start up something very shortly between Russia and ourselves maybe to start off, and I think China will be added down the road,” he said last Friday.
“We’ll be talking about non-proliferation, we’ll be talking about a nuclear deal of some kind, and I think it’ll be a very comprehensive one.”