Russia & US should play leading role in nuclear disarmament, not China – Beijing’s ambassador

A leading role in the nuclear disarmament should be played by Moscow and Washington, but not Beijing, because China’s nuclear arsenal is noticeably smaller, according to Chinese Ambassador to US Cui Tiankai.

During the annual Aspen Security Forum, the envoy was asked whether China was interested in signing any arms control deals with the participation of Moscow and Washington.

“I think that there are now very important negotiations between the US and Russia concerning the existing treaties between those countries. And these treaties are extremely important for international strategic stability,” TASS quoted the diplomat as saying. “We hope those treaties would continue… We could have reasons to be optimistic, but I don’t know.”

The US and Russia have the largest nuclear arsenal, while China has a very small amount of nuclear weapons, according to the ambassador. He noted that one of his colleagues had earlier asked whether the US was ready to reduce its current nuclear stockpile to the size of the Chinese one as a precondition for launching the negotiations.