It is not clear if the other countries with nuclear weapon stockpiles – Israel, Iran, North Korea, France, Britain, Pakistan and India – would be included in such negotiations.
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Trump in his first term tried and failed to bring China into nuclear arms reduction talks when the US and Russia were negotiating an extension of The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty known as New START.
It caps the number of strategic nuclear warheads that the US and Russia can deploy, and the deployment of land- and submarine-based missiles and bombers to deliver them, is due to run out on February 5, 2026.
Russia on Monday said the outlook for extending nuclear arms control between Moscow and Washington, the world’s two biggest nuclear powers, did not look promising and that the situation appeared to be deadlocked.
Moscow suspended its participation in the treaty during the Biden administration, as the US and Russia continued on massive programs to extend the life spans of or replace their Cold War-era nuclear arsenals.
Trump said he had reached an understanding with Putin on cutting back nuclear weapons during his first term, and China was “very open” to it, but the effort floundered once the COVID pandemic began.
Under Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, the US pushed China to break a longstanding resistance to nuclear arms talks to little avail.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping.Credit: Wires
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Separately, Trump said he would like Russia to be readmitted to the G7. He said it was a mistake to expel Moscow after it annexed Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014.
“I’d love to have them back. I think it was a mistake to throw them out. Look, it’s not a question of liking Russia or not liking Russia. It was the G8,” Trump said at the White House.
“They should be sitting at the table. I think Putin would love to be back.”
There was no immediate reaction to Trump’s comments from Canada, which is chair of the G7 this year.
He has repeatedly tried to get the group to readmit Russia but he has been rebuffed. In 2020, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ruled it out completely, saying the G7 was “a place for allies and friends”.
