America Urges Tripartite Nuclear Agreement Talks with Russia and China

After the U.S. and Russia's New START Treaty expired, America urged today, Friday, February 6, to hold tripartite talks with Russia and China to develop a new nuclear weapons limitation agreement.

Thomas DiNanno, the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, said at the United Nations Conference on Disarmament that the New START Treaty, which expired this Thursday, has "fundamental flaws."

The U.S. official said at the United Nations European Headquarters in Geneva: "Russia has repeatedly violated the treaty, global nuclear arsenals are continuously growing, and the design and implementation flaws of the New START Treaty have made it urgent for the U.S. to call for a new mechanism to address current threats rather than those from past eras."

The New START Treaty, which expired on February 5, marks the first time in decades that the world faces a situation without any treaty limiting the deployment of the most destructive weapons on Earth, raising concerns about a new arms race, as the treaty had previously limited the number of deployed nuclear warheads to 1,550 for both the U.S. and Russia.

President Trump rejected Russian President Putin's proposal to extend the New START Treaty's limitations for another year and called on Thursday for a "new, improved, and modernized treaty."

Deputy Secretary of State DiNanno insisted: "The New START Treaty does not allow the U.S. to effectively fulfill its commitment to protect the American people and European allies from strategic deterrence."

The U.S. aims to build a completely new, more comprehensive strategic stability and arms control framework based on the New START Treaty, making the world safer.

China's ambassador to the United Nations, Shen Jian, reiterated this position on Friday and emphasized to the disarmament agencies that "China's nuclear capabilities are far behind those of the U.S. or Russia, and China will not participate in nuclear disarmament negotiations at this stage."

Meanwhile, Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, Gatiylov, maintained that "any new nuclear negotiations should include other nuclear-armed countries, such as France and the UK. If the UK and France also participate, Russia will also participate. The UK and France are military allies of the U.S. in NATO, and NATO has declared itself a nuclear alliance."

Source: rfi

Original: toutiao.com/article/1856447124029440/

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