Washington will keep pushing China to join a trilateral nuclear control deal with the US and Russia, but can’t compel it to do so, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, citing “strategic stability” in China-US relations ahead of US President Donald Trump’s visit to China in April, despite long-term “irritants”.
“We think ultimately, in the 21st century, for there to be a true arms control agreement, it has to involve China,” Rubio said during a press conference at a meeting of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in Saint Kitts and Nevis on Wednesday.
“They have publicly said they are not willing to do it ... But we’ll continue to press on it because we think it would be good for the world if we could reach such an agreement.”
Rubio was referring to Trump’s recent proposal for a new three-way nuclear arms control deal with China and Russia, which came after the US-Russia New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New Start), the world’s last binding nuclear arms treaty, expired on February 5.
Trump has turned down Moscow’s offer to extend New Start for another year, arguing for an “improved” deal that would involve China.
Rubio said that while the US can’t force China to come aboard, it would continue to make efforts to convince Beijing.
“We can’t compel them. They’ll just have to argue to the world why they need to keep building nuclear weapons, and that’s a sovereign choice that they can make,” Rubio said.
“You can certainly create incentives for them to do it ... So we could pressure, we can guide, we can cajole, but we can’t compel. If they don’t want to do it, then we won’t have one. We’ll just keep doing what we need to do.”
The Chinese Embassy in the United States did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Days after Trump floated the new three-way treaty with Beijing, the US accused China of secretly conducting a nuclear test in 2020.
Washington pledged to resume nuclear tests to match alleged Chinese activity, creating a potential flashpoint between bilateral relations weeks ahead of a high-stakes meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Christopher Yeaw, Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Arms Control and Nonproliferation, said earlier this month that the US had detected a seismic event of 2.75 magnitude on June 22, 2020, right near China’s Lop Nur nuclear test site, which he said was “quite consistent with” what would be expected from a nuclear explosive test of a certain yield.
Yeaw also said this week at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva that China has “massively expanded its nuclear arsenal without transparency or any indication of China’s intent or end point”.
In response, Chinese United Nations ambassador Shen Jian told the conference that US accusations about the Chinese nuclear test were groundless, and that Beijing “firmly opposes the constant distortion and smearing of its nuclear policy by certain countries”.
“I think we’ve reached a point, at least, of a sort of strategic stability in the relationship,” Rubio said, a day after Trump’s State of the Union speech, which this year made no direct mention of China.
“There remain issues that we know, in the long term, are going to have to be confronted and could be irritants in our relationship,” he continued.
“We’ve not been bashful in saying that we don’t think it’s sustainable to live in a world where we depend on some country for 90 per cent of anything, whether it’s supply chains or critical minerals or the like, pharmaceuticals and the like.”
But it would be “reckless and irresponsible” for the US and China, the two largest economies in the world, which both possess nuclear arsenals, not to have conversations or not to have opportunities for the two leaders to interact with each other, he added.
The White House confirmed last week that Trump will visit Beijing between March 31 and April 2. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
