2023-06-02 11:29:20
Any US commitment to nuclear disarmament in the future will depend on China, said a senior White House official, while assuring that Washington had not lost sight of Russia.
“We would be ready to respect the constraints and participate in a disarmament regime after 2026, but a key variable will be the nature of our trade with China by then,” he said in an interview. with the press.
The exchange comes ahead of a speech Friday by White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan on nuclear disarmament.
According to the senior official already quoted, who did not wish to be named, the United States is not losing sight of Russia, which has suspended its participation in the New Start nuclear disarmament treaty, the last bilateral agreement of its kind linking the two former Cold War rivals.
This agreement expires in 2026.
The United States is “open” to an “unconditional” dialogue with Moscow on the issue of nuclear armament, assured the source, stressing that the Americans always seek to obtain from the Russians a “certain level of reciprocity”.
The US State Department nevertheless announced Thursday “countermeasures” in response to Russia’s decision to suspend its participation in the treaty. The United States will therefore restrict the sharing of information with Russia on its nuclear arsenal.
Chinese Arsenal
But, in nuclear matters as with all the rest of its diplomatic activity, the United States is above all focused on China, which is rapidly developing its arsenal, argued the senior official.
“The size of their arsenal, the nature of their force and other developments in their policy will impact our own posture going forward,” he stressed.
This will have repercussions on the positioning of Russia, which will have consequences on that of France and Great Britain, he analyzed: “everything is very connected”.
He assured that the Biden administration, while assuming a logic of rivalry with China, had nevertheless signaled to Beijing its “willingness” and its “interest” for discussions concerning nuclear armament.
Relations are very tense between the two superpowers, despite hopes of a “thaw” recently expressed by US President Joe Biden.
China, for example, recently declined the invitation of the United States to a meeting between the defense ministers of the two countries.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri), China has an arsenal of 350 nuclear warheads – far behind Russia (4,477) and the United States (3,708).
But Beijing could have 1,500 by 2035, predicted a US Department of Defense report in November.
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