US Holds Geneva Talks on Nuclear Weapons

The United States is holding high-level meetings in Geneva with Russian and Chinese delegations to discuss nuclear weapons, following the expiration of the final treaty limiting US and Russian nuclear deployments, a senior US official said Monday.

“Today, I met with the Russian delegation. Tomorrow, we’ll meet with the Chinese delegation, among others,” the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told reporters. Earlier preparatory meetings in Washington had laid the groundwork after the New START treaty expired on February 5, but the Geneva talks are considered more substantive.

Washington has also engaged with nuclear powers Britain and France in recent weeks. President Donald Trump has called for a new treaty that would include China, whose nuclear arsenal, while smaller than that of the US or Russia, has been growing rapidly. China has publicly rejected participation in a trilateral agreement.

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Christopher Yeaw, US Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, told the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva that New START was flawed and did not account for China’s “rapid and opaque nuclear weapons build-up.” In response, Chinese Ambassador Shen Jian stressed that Beijing will not engage in a nuclear arms race, noting that China’s arsenal is far smaller than that of the world’s largest nuclear powers and it is unreasonable to expect Chinese participation in trilateral talks.

The US official said Trump is pushing for “multilateral negotiations, strategic stability dialogues, and arms control discussions” aimed at achieving a stronger agreement. The official noted that the next step could involve the P5 — the five permanent members of the UN Security Council: the US, Russia, China, Britain, and France — though bilateral, multilateral, or plurilateral formats remain possible. “We’re not going to constrain ourselves to a particular format,” the official said, emphasizing that all avenues will be used to pursue progress toward fewer nuclear weapons.