The government Biden is preparing for talks with China to control the nuclear weapons, as the US tries to prevent a destabilizing arms race with Beijing and Moscow.
The meeting scheduled for Monday is the first discussion with Beijing since the Obama administration and will focus on reducing the risk of miscalculation, US officials said.
The discussion does not mark the start of formal negotiations to set limits on each side’s nuclear forces, as Washington has long done with Moscow. Instead, the upcoming meeting will give US officials an opportunity to discuss Beijing’s nuclear doctrine with their Chinese counterparts.
Last Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said disputes over Taiwan were the biggest obstacle to improving US-China relations and said Beijing wanted to “stabilize relations.” This, he said, would include “China-US consultations on arms control and non-proliferation”.
China signed the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty during the Clinton administration. However, Beijing rejected proposals during the Trump administration to join talks with the US and Russia to negotiate formal limits on nuclear forces.
The rivalry between the US and China turned into an open diplomatic crisis over the hot air balloon incident last February. Relations between the world’s two largest economies face a series of problems, from Taiwan to the causes of the new coronavirus pandemic, and from accusations of espionage to human rights, trade and tariffs.
Since then, the two sides have started a dialogue in recent months, with a series of visits by American officials to Beijing aimed at easing bilateral tension.
With information from Reuters, WSJ
