{"id":30257,"date":"2019-12-03T21:55:41","date_gmt":"2019-12-03T21:55:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2019\/12\/03\/trump-upbeat-on-nuclear-talks-but-lawmakers-warn-of-blow-up\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T22:34:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:34:47","slug":"trump-upbeat-on-nuclear-talks-but-lawmakers-warn-of-blow-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/congress\/2019\/12\/03\/trump-upbeat-on-nuclear-talks-but-lawmakers-warn-of-blow-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump upbeat on nuclear talks with Russia and China, but lawmakers warn of \u2018blow up\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2015 U.S. President Donald Trump was optimistic on Tuesday about notional negotiations with Russia<\/a> and China<\/a> on a new nuclear weapons treaty, but State Department officials painted a murkier picture in testimony to skeptical lawmakers on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conflicting accounts came as arms control advocates and some lawmakers worry that the Trump administration could let a 2010 arms reduction treaty, New START, expire in 2021, leaving no limits on the world\u2019s two largest nuclear arsenals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With time running out for Trump to achieve his ambitious goals of a new trilateral agreement with Russia and China that sets new limits on Russia\u2019s shorter-range \u201ctactical\u201d nukes, lawmakers told administration officials that a lack of progress is no reason to let New START expire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think what we don\u2019t want to see is China used as an excuse to blow up the existing or potential extension of an agreement with Russia that contributes to international security, and of course in the nuclear realm that\u2019s important to our survival,\u201d Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., told State Department officials Tuesday during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though the treaty, which limits the number of strategic weapons, has been in doubt since Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty this year, Trump said at NATO\u2019s London meeting<\/a> that his conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese officials on nuclear arms control had gone well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith respect to nuclear weapons, I\u2019ve spoken with President [Vladimir] Putin, and I\u2019ve communicated with him. He very much, and so do we, want to work out a treaty of some kind on nuclear that will probably include China at some point, and [France] by the way, but it will include China and some other countries,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top Chinese officials previously made clear<\/a> that Beijing will not participate in trilateral talks, but Trump on Tuesday said that when he raised the issue with Chinese officials during separate trade negotiations, \u201cthey were extremely excited about getting involved. … So some very good things can happen with respect to that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t