China said Washington’s proposal for trilateral negotiations was “neither serious nor sincere”.
Beijing:
China rejected a new invitation from the United States to join arms control talks with Russia on Friday, complaining that Washington had continued to “harass” Beijing on the issue.
President Donald Trump’s administration has demanded that China participate in the successor talks of the new START treaty, which caps the nuclear warheads of the United States and Russia – the two superpowers of the Cold War era.
Beijing said in response that it would only participate in the talks if the U.S. reduced its arsenal to match China’s much smaller nuclear deterrent, prompting Washington to issue a new invitation to the talks on Thursday.
But Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian poured cold water on the idea during a press briefing on Friday.
“China’s opposition to the so-called trilateral arms control negotiations is very clear,” he said.
“However, the United States continues to harass China, even distorting China’s position.”
Zhao said that Washington’s proposal for trilateral negotiations was “neither serious nor sincere,” inviting him to respond to Russia’s request to extend the treaty and further reduce its own nuclear arsenal.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
