Rubio reveals US condition for global nuclear arms deal

No agreement will be made without Beijing, the American secretary of state has said

Any future nuclear arms control agreement must include China alongside the US and Russia, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said. He stated that Washington will continue pressing for trilateral talks with Beijing and Moscow.

The New START treaty, the last remaining nuclear pact between Washington and Moscow, expired earlier this month.

“We think ultimately, in the 21st century, for there to be a true arms control agreement it has to involve China,” Rubio told reporters on Wednesday. “The president strongly believes that for any nuclear agreement in the 21st century to be legitimate, it has to involve these three countries.”

Rubio acknowledged that Beijing’s nuclear arsenal is far smaller than those of Russia and the US, but dismissed this as “irrelevant.” He argued that China “certainly has the capacity to catch up and are well on their way to doing so.”

Read more

When asked how Washington could compel Beijing to join, the secretary admitted that “we can't compel them,” adding that if China refuses “then we may not have a deal.”

The New START treaty expired on February 5. Moscow had proposed maintaining caps on warheads for another year if Washington reciprocated, but the initiative went unanswered, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

US Vice President J.D. Vance confirmed earlier this month that negotiations on an updated version are ongoing. “It’s going to change compared to where it was,” he stated. A senior State Department official, however, told reporters last week that no “gentlemen's agreement” is in place to adhere to the treaty in the meantime.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has since pledged to prioritize the development of Moscow’s nuclear triad, describing it as an “unconditional priority” that “guarantees Russia’s security and enables us to effectively ensure strategic deterrence.”

At the same time, the Kremlin has stressed it has no intention of being the first to escalate, provided the US takes the same approach.

Commenting to RT on the status of US talks with Russia and China on a potential New START follow-on treaty, China’s disarmament delegation in Geneva said the US, as a nuclear-weapon state with the world’s largest nuclear arsenal, should shoulder its “special and primary responsibility” for nuclear disarmament.

“This is the international consensus,” the delegation said, adding that there are currently no negotiations between Beijing and Washington.