WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the United States is holding talks with Russia and China aimed at reducing the nuclear arsenals of the countries with the largest stockpiles, according to Reuters.
Trump made the remarks in an interview with Newsmax, according to Reuters. He said he would like to denuclearize if possible and described discussions with both Moscow and Beijing on the subject. Newsmax reported that Trump said he had spoken with Chinese President Xi Jinping about denuclearization, according to Reuters.
No agreement, timetable or formal negotiating framework was announced. The comments describe talks, not a signed deal, and neither Russia nor China was reported in the Reuters account as confirming a specific new round or terms.
The remarks come months after the last remaining U.S.-Russia nuclear arms treaty, New START, expired earlier this year, according to Reuters. Signed in 2010, the treaty limited deployed strategic warheads and launchers and allowed one five-year extension, which Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin agreed in 2021. Any further limits would now require a new arrangement or a voluntary decision by both sides to keep observing the old caps.
Russia holds the largest number of stored nuclear warheads, followed by the United States and then China, according to estimates from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute cited by Reuters. The United States deploys more warheads than Russia, according to the same estimates. Trump said he expects China to catch up with the United States within about five years, according to Reuters.
Arms control between Washington and Moscow has largely stalled since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and inspections and data exchanges under New START were suspended before the treaty expired. China, whose arsenal is smaller but growing, has historically resisted joining trilateral limits until its stockpile approaches those of the two larger powers.
Why it matters: without a successor framework, the two largest nuclear powers face no binding cap on deployed strategic weapons for the first time in decades, while a third power builds up outside any treaty. Even exploratory talks, if they lead to a formal process, would mark a shift after years in which arms control was treated as frozen.
What happens next will depend on whether either Moscow or Beijing publicly confirms the discussions and whether the White House names envoys, dates or proposals. For now, the claim rests on the president’s own account in a television interview, reported by Reuters, and should be read as an opening signal rather than a negotiated outcome.
