US in ‘denuclearisation’ talks with Russia and China: Trump

The United States is engaged in talks with Russia and China regarding nuclear disarmament, President Donald Trump has announced.

Trump said on Thursday that China – which lags behind the US and Russia in terms of the number of warheads it has – is racing to catch up. He added during an interview with US broadcaster Newsmax that Washington is discussing with its peers a route to “denuclearise”.

China’s nuclear stockpile of about 620 warheads is dwarfed by those of the US and Russia, which each have more than 4,000, but Trump said he thinks China will “catch up” within five years.

“The whole thing is a shame because I’d love to denuclearise if possible,” Trump said. “We’re actually talking ⁠to Russia about that, and ⁠we’re talking to China about that denuclearisation.”

China doesn’t seem willing to disarm, he noted, but said talks have continued. Newsmax reported that Trump spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the subject, but no further details regarding the talks with either Russia or China were revealed.

Russia has the world’s largest stockpile of nuclear warheads, and the US is close behind, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

The two countries together possess an estimated 86 percent of all nuclear weapons globally.

China has the third largest nuclear arsenal, according to SIPRI, having expanded it to 620 warheads in the past year.

Trump’s claims came shortly after the expiration of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, an arms control agreement between the US and Russia to limit their nuclear arsenals.

A month after the treaty expired, French President Emmanuel Macron announced the Forward Deterrence Initiative as Russia’s nuclear sabre-rattling during its war on Ukraine has spooked Europe.

Former Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Gareth Evans told Al Jazeera that the world’s interest in the risk of nuclear weapons has waned.

“[The] world … has become alarmingly complacent about the risks of nuclear war with every major nuclear arms control agreement dead, dying or on life support and the longstanding taboo against threat or use eroding,” he said