Donald Trump insisted that China should be involved in the talks (File)
Vienna:
Beijing has “an obligation” to join Washington and Moscow in negotiations to replace a nuclear disarmament treaty, the United States said on Tuesday, in the aftermath of talks with Russia in Vienna.
“They (China) have an obligation to negotiate in good faith with us and the Russians,” US negotiating representative Marshall Billingslea told reporters.
“They not only defended the United States and Russia, but they also defended the whole world,” he said.
On Monday, the American and Russian delegations met in Vienna to discuss the new START treaty, which limits each party to 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads but which should run out in February.
President Donald Trump has insisted that China should be involved in the talks, but Beijing has expressed no interest in participating.
Billingslea said another round of negotiations could take place towards the end of July, but admitted that it could again be limited to Washington and Moscow and did not rule out an extension of the bilateral agreement .
“The Russian Federation has not accepted my request to pressure China to participate as a responsible party in these talks, but neither is it opposed to China,” said Billingslea.
However, on Tuesday, the Russian envoy to the talks, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said it was “unrealistic to expect China to participate.”
Billingslea said that the American delegation “has had the opportunity to spend a great deal of time presenting detailed information – the first time in fact in recent memory that we have done this with Russia – regarding … unsettling and disturbing third party crash, “said Billingslea, in another oblique reference to China.
He said that the American delegation had the “clear impression” that Russia would be in favor of a multilateral format including the European nuclear powers, France and the United Kingdom.
The United States would not rule out this prospect, said Billingslea, but stressed that “the United Kingdom and France are in a very different situation from that of the Chinese arms race.”
He also confirmed that the American delegation had deployed Chinese flags in the negotiation room before the arrival of the Russian delegation.
Shortly before talks began on Monday, Billingslea tweeted a photo of an empty negotiating table adorned with Chinese flags, provoking a dismissive reaction from Chinese diplomats.
Experts say the Trump administration’s insistence that China be part of the talks casts doubt on whether it is serious to reach an agreement.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
