China will not participate in nuclear non-proliferation agreement Wang Yi

Moscow: “China is not interested in the non-proliferation discussions happening between the United States and Russia. There is no need for China to participate in such talks,” said Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi clarifying his country’s position on nuclear non-proliferation. Wang Yi said that China had much less number of nuclear weapons, as compared to the United States and Russia. US President Donald Trump had appealed to China to participate in the New START, an agreement for banning nuclear weapons and missiles, along with Russia. But Chinese Foreign Minister Wang has rejected the US Proposal, saying that it is not necessary for China to participate in the agreement. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang, recently went on an urgent visit to Russia. At this time, Wang held a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The maximum discussions were regarding the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) proposal of the United States. Following the meeting with Lavrov, the Chinese Foreign Minister declared at a press conference that the mainland will not be participating in the bilateral talks for the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

Further, Wang rejected the US proposal saying, “China is not interested in participating in the discussions and the subsequent agreement between the United States and Russia, for restricting the number of nuclear weapons.” Wang claimed that the number of nuclear weapons held by China is minimal and is consistent with the security concerns of the country. Wang told the reporters that China built these nuclear weapons given the increasing uncertainty in the Korean region.

Notably, Chinese Foreign Minister met Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov to clarify the Jinping government’s stance, before the visit of US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo. The New START will be discussed during the meeting of the Russian and US Foreign Ministers. Last week, US President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a telephonic discussion, regarding the New START, for limiting the number of nuclear weapons. Furthermore, the US President appealed China to be a part of the New START.

While the United States is restricting its number of nuclear weapons, China is going ahead with unrestricted manufacture of nuclear weapons, hypersonic and ballistic missiles. China has made preparations to deploy hypersonic and nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles, on submarines and fighter jets. In view of this, the United States has been demanding that China should be a part of the New START. But it is clear that China is not willing to restrict its number of nuclear weapons and missiles. Due to this Chinese policy, the United States will be able to formulate a stronger nuclear weapons-related strategy, accusing China of being an irresponsible nuclear power.