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Trump believes US, Russia, China could cut nuclear weapons stockpiles

"We'd like to see denuclearization," Trump said

WASHINGTON, January 23. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump said it is possible that the US, Russia and China could agree to reduce their stockpiles of nuclear weapons.

He made the statement while speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos via video link.

"We'd like to see denuclearization," Trump said.

According to the US president, he held talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in the past about "denuclearization of our two countries."

"China would have come along," he said.

"So we want to see if we can denuclearize, and I think that's very possible," Trump went on to say. "That would have been an unbelievable thing for the planet."

According to Trump, the Russian president "really liked the idea of cutting way back on nuclear."

"He and I wanted to do it," the US president said. "The rest of the world, we would have gotten them to follow, and China would have come along too. China also liked it."

According to Trump, China has a much smaller nuclear stockpile than the US, "but they're going to be catching up at some point over the next four or five years."

"Tremendous amounts of money are being spent on nuclear, and the destructive capability is something that we don't even want to talk about today," he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on February 21, 2023, that Moscow had suspended compliance with the New START Treaty but did not pull out of it altogether. He emphasized that Moscow, before resuming the discussion of continuing activities under the treaty, should have an understanding how the New START Treaty would take into account the arsenals not only of the United States, but also of other NATO nuclear powers: Britain and France.

Under the terms of the treaty, either side is to reduce its strategic offensive arms so that seven years after the document enters into force and thereafter their total numbers will not exceed 700 deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) and heavy bombers, 1,550 warheads on them, 800 deployed and non-deployed launchers of ICBMs, SLBMs and heavy bombers. The 10-year document expired on February 5, 2021, but can be extended by mutual agreement. In February 2021, Moscow and Washington extended the agreement, which Russian authorities described as the gold standard in the field of disarmament, for the maximum possible period of five years.