US and Russia to open negotiations on nuclear arms control

(Patria) – Russia has confirmed that it will open negotiations with the US in June on extending a major disarmament treaty, but warned that US insistence on including China could disrupt joint efforts.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov will meet with US envoy Marshall Billingslea on June 22 in Vienna to begin negotiations on the 'New START' treaty, which expired in February.

US President Donald Trump has withdrawn from several international agreements, but has expressed interest in preserving New START, which obliges the US and Russia to halve the number of nuclear missile launch systems.

However, the Trump administration claims that the new treaty that will succeed New START, signed during the previous presidency of Barack Obama, must also include China, whose nuclear arsenal is growing but is still far from the size and power of Russia's and the US's.

"My answer to the direct question of whether I think it would be possible to bring China to the table – would be a definite and unequivocal – no," Ryabkov said at a meeting of the Council on Foreign Relations.

He added that Russia does not oppose the US call to China, but expressed doubt that Beijing would agree.

In return, Ryabkov said that nuclear powers such as Great Britain and France should also be at the negotiating table.

Ryabkov considers the US agreement to negotiations to be "good news", but notes that the decision is now in "American hands".

"This administration must say clearly and loudly what it wants, how positive progress can be achieved, and not just dismantle one arms control treaty to establish another," Ryabkov insists.

Last month, Trump withdrew from the Open Skies treaty, which allows Russia, the US, and 32 other countries to conduct surveillance flights over other territories (of signatory countries) with prior notice.

Somewhat earlier, the US president also withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which dates back to the Cold War.

In his address last month at the Hudson Institute, US envoy Marshall Billingslea accused China of raising a "great wall of secrecy" about its nuclear arsenal, which it seeks to "intimidate the US and our friends and allies."

"This is irresponsible, dangerous behavior. If China seeks to be a great power, and we know it sees itself that way – it must behave like a great power," Billingslea said, the British Guardian reports.

According to data from the US Arms Control Center, the US and Russia had more than 6,000 nuclear warheads (each) in 2019, while China had 290.