Trump says he wants to work with Russia and China on limiting nuclear arms

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he would like to have conversations with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping about imposing limits on their nuclear arsenals.

Answering questions from reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said denuclearisation would be a goal in his second term.

Russia warned on Monday that the outlook for extending the last remaining pillar of nuclear arms control between Moscow and Washington, the world’s two biggest nuclear powers, did not look promising and that the situation appeared to be deadlocked.

The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or New START, which caps the number of strategic nuclear warheads that the United States and Russia can deploy, and the deployment of land- and submarine-based missiles and bombers to deliver them, is due to run out in less than a year – on February 5, 2026.

Trump, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, said he supports moves toward denuclearisation and there is no reason to build nuclear weapons.

Trump said he had already reached an understanding with Putin on cutting back nuclear weapons during his first term, and China was “very open” to it, but the effort floundered once the Covid pandemic began.

  

​Read More