The Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Lavrov said in an interview released by the Russian media on the 10th that the United States intends to involve China in future possible new treaty negotiations aimed at replacing the expired New Strategic Weapons Treaty, or is diverting the focus and avoiding the substance of the issue. In contrast, the United States has never mentioned involving Britain and France in such negotiations. Lavrov said that China has made its position clear multiple times, and Russia has expressed respect for this.
Also, according to Russia‘s Businessman newspaper reported on the 10th, Russian Federal Security Council Secretary Shaigu also mentioned in an interview that after the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty expires, the United States proposes to establish what is called “a new framework based on temporary multilateral documents,” which “is not at all multilateral,” and “the key condition proposed by the United States is for China to join the (military control) negotiations, but remains silent about the need for British and French participation.”
According to the Russian news agency, the Russian-American New Strategic Weapons Treaty expires on January 5, the only arms control treaty between the two countries since the Russian-American Neutral Conductor Treaty expired in 2019. According to previous reports by U.S. media, Trump had said in January this year that if the New Strategic Weapons Treaty expires, “then let it expire, we will reach a better agreement.” Trump also said that “wanting to get a few other players involved,” China should be included in any possible related agreement in the future. U.S. Secretary of State Rubio claimed in an article published on January 6 that nuclear arms control is no longer a bilateral issue between the U.S. and Russia. As Trump “clearly pointed out,” other countries also have responsibilities to help ensure strategic stability, the most important of which is China.
Regarding the U.S. side‘s above remarks, the Russian news network “ukraina.ru” reported on 11th that the U.S. has long been trying to pull China into related nuclear arms control negotiations, which is not rational. The U.S.-China nuclear power is not of the same magnitude, and China has always insisted on pursuing a self-defense nuclear defense strategy, always maintaining nuclear power at the minimum level required for national security.