Trump Renews Effort to Launch Nuclear Disarmament Talks with Russia and China

President Donald Trump is once more advocating for nuclear disarmament negotiations involving Russia and China, returning to a major policy goal from his earlier time in office. This initiative comes as he also seeks to reestablish dialogue with North Korea.

“One of the things we’re trying to do with Russia and with China is denuclearisation, and it’s very important,” Trump said ahead of a Monday meeting at the White House with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung.
“I think the denuclearisation is a very — it’s a big aim, but Russia is willing to do it, and I think China is going to be willing to do it too. We can’t let nuclear weapons proliferate. We have to stop nuclear weapons. The power is too great,” he added.

Later that day at another event, Trump mentioned a previous discussion with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the issue but gave no details on the timing.

“We’re talking about limiting nuclear weapons. We’ll get China into that,” he said.“China is way behind, but they’ll catch us in five years. We would like to denuclearize. It’s too much power, and we talked about that also.”

Trump has also expressed a willingness to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un within the year. Despite multiple public invitations since taking office in January, Kim has yet to respond. Trump’s earlier efforts to negotiate with North Korea between 2017 and 2021 did not result in a formal agreement to end its nuclear program.
His renewed attention to arms control was first outlined in February, when he said he hoped to begin discussions with both Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping to establish limits on their nuclear stockpiles.
At that time, speaking from the Oval Office, he described denuclearization as a key objective for a second term, saying he hoped talks could begin in the “not too distant future.”
This initiative also gains urgency as the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) nears its expiration date of February 5, 2026. The agreement, signed in 2010, is the last remaining nuclear arms control pact between the U.S. and Russia, placing caps on deployed warheads and delivery systems.
Earlier this year, Moscow indicated that the chances of extending the treaty were looking uncertain. Meanwhile, prior efforts by the U.S. to include China in formal nuclear arms talks have yielded little progress.