Demand for trilateral nuclear talks ‘unrealistic’

Hyping up China’s participation in three-way disarmament negotiations with the United States and Russia is Washington’s ploy to shift responsibility and avoid extension of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, a Chinese arms control official said on Wednesday.

“The real purpose (of the US) is to get rid of all the restrictions and have a free hand in seeking military superiority over any adversary, real or imagined,” said Fu Cong, directorgeneral of the Department of Arms Control of the Foreign Ministry.

If the US agrees to reduce its nuclear arsenal to China’s level, China would “be happy” to join in the trilateral negotiations the next day, Fu told reporters at a news briefing. “But actually, we know that’s not going to happen.”

The US has repeatedly tried to involve China in the negotiations to extend the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, a flagship nuclear arms agreement between the US and Russia that is due to expire next February. Washington and Moscow held negotiations in Vienna on June 22 on the extension of the treaty.

Drawing China into so-called trilateral negotiations is nothing but a ploy to divert attention and create a pretext under which the US can walk away from the treaty, Fu said.

He noted that it is “unrealistic to expect China to join trilateral negotiations” given the huge disparity among the nuclear arsenals of China, the US and Russia.

He cited figures from international think tanks as saying that the US has about 5,800 nuclear warheads, which is 20 times the size of China’s total.

China urges the US to respond favorably and positively to the Russian call for the extension of the treaty, he said.

On that basis, China expects the US, with the biggest and the most sophisticated nuclear arsenal, would continue to reduce its nuclear arsenals so as to create conditions for other nations to participate in this process, he said.

Fu said that China is not “shying away from the international nuclear disarmament process” and is prepared, within the framework of the United Nations Security Council’s five permanent members, to discuss all issues related to strategic stability and the reduction of nuclear risks.

In response to concerns that China is upgrading and expanding its nuclear arsenal, Fu said that Beijing does not have the ambition to become the sole superpower.

The country is committed to maintaining its minimum deterrent capability, and China’s policy of no first use of nuclear weapons will not change, he said.

But that does not mean China should not modernize is nuclear weapons as the country has the need to safeguard its national security, he added.