US-Russia Nuclear Weapons Talks Start This Month...The Issue Is China's Participation

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunwoo Lee] The United States and Russia have agreed to hold nuclear weapons limitation talks this month and have reportedly invited China to the negotiation table. Attention is focused on whether the three countries?U.S., China, and Russia?will sit together at the negotiation table for the first time regarding a nuclear weapons limitation agreement. China has so far refused to participate in the talks, arguing that the scale of its nuclear arsenal is too small compared to those of the U.S. and Russia to be considered a party to the nuclear weapons limitation negotiations.

According to foreign media including CNN, on the 8th (local time), Marshall Billingslea, the U.S. presidential special representative for arms control, announced via Twitter that he had agreed with Russian authorities to engage in nuclear weapons talks this month. Billingslea stated, "I have agreed with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov on the time and place for nuclear weapons talks in June," adding, "China has also been invited, but it is doubtful whether China will show up at the negotiation table and engage sincerely." Bloomberg News, citing a senior U.S. government official, reported that the U.S.-Russia talks are scheduled for the 22nd of this month and will be held in Vienna, the capital of Austria.

The current U.S.-Russia nuclear talks are focused on whether to renew the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), which is set to expire next year. This treaty was originally signed near the end of the Cold War in 1991, revised during the Barack Obama administration in 2010, and has been in effect since February 2011. The treaty limits the number of deployed nuclear warheads for the U.S. and Russia to fewer than 1,550 and reduces the number of nuclear warhead delivery vehicles, such as intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), to fewer than 700. If both countries agree, the treaty can be extended for another five years.

China is expected to be a variable factor in this agreement. Previously, President Trump unilaterally withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) last August, citing that China was not included in the agreement between the U.S. and Russia. In the current negotiations, the U.S. government insists that China should be included as a party to the nuclear weapons agreement. However, the Chinese government has expressed refusal, stating that its nuclear arsenal is much smaller compared to those of the U.S. and Russia and therefore cannot be a party to the agreement. Officially, the U.S. and Russia possess 85% of the world's nuclear weapons, and China’s nuclear arsenal is known to be only about 10% of that held by the U.S. and Russia. Nevertheless, the U.S. unofficially claims that China possesses a substantial nuclear arsenal.

The U.S. has stated it will proceed with the talks regardless of China’s participation, but if China does not join, there are concerns that negotiations with Russia could also be disrupted. Citing Rose Gottemoeller, former U.S. State Department Deputy Assistant Secretary for Arms Control and International Security, AP News warned that if the U.S. withdraws from this agreement as well, it could lose the institutional capability to inspect Russian nuclear weapons.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.