U.S. and Chinese officials agreed in a phone call on Wednesday that leader-level talks were important for advancing denuclearization, the State Department said.
The call between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, held at Beijing’s request, came ahead of expected meetings between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
The State Department said the two discussed Trump’s upcoming trip to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in China and Xi’s planned visit to Florida for the G20, and recalled the leaders’ commitment to a constructive relationship.
Rubio and Wang “agreed on the importance of meaningful leader-level conversations to advance goals such as peace and denuclearization, including at any potential trilateral leaders meeting with Russia,” the department said in a post on X.
China’s Foreign Ministry described the call as positive and constructive, saying the two sides exchanged views on bilateral relations and on contacts between the two leaders. The ministry’s readout did not address denuclearization or a possible meeting with Russia.
Wang said China’s policy toward the United States remained stable and consistent, according to the ministry’s readout.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Oct. 16 that it was “neither fair, reasonable nor realistic to ask China to join the so-called trilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations at this stage.”
On Feb. 5, the day New START, the last U.S.–Russia nuclear arms treaty, expired, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said China’s nuclear forces were on an entirely different scale from those of the United States and Russia and that China would not join nuclear disarmament negotiations at this stage. He was responding to a question about U.S. calls for an arms control framework that includes China.
The next day, Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security Thomas G. DiNanno called for New START to be renewed with China included.
Trump has said he expects to meet both Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin during the summit.
“One of the meetings, I think, will be with President Putin and President Xi, and that’ll be interesting,” he told reporters. “We’re talking a lot of things, including denuclearization, but we’ll be talking a lot of things. We’re trying to end the war in Iran.”
Trump has publicly floated the idea for weeks.
In mid-October he told Newsmax, “The whole thing is a shame, because I’d love to denuclearize if possible, but we’re actually talking to Russia about that, and we’re talking to China about that denuclearization.”
He has suggested China is “probably less inclined” because its arsenal is smaller than those of the United States and Russia.
The APEC leaders’ meeting is scheduled for Nov. 18–19 in Shenzhen.
Trump’s Shenzhen trip would be his second visit to China this year, following a May summit with Xi in Beijing.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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