US President Donald Trump said that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday discussed the possibility of a new accord limiting nuclear arms that could eventually include China in what would be a major deal between the globe’s top three atomic powers.
Trump, speaking to reporters as he met in the Oval Office with Slovak Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini, also said that he and Putin discussed efforts to persuade North Korea to give up nuclear weapons, the political discord in Venezuela and Ukraine during a call that lasted more than an hour.
The 2011 New START treaty, the only US-Russia arms control pact limiting deployed strategic nuclear weapons, expires in February 2021, but can be extended for five years if both sides agree.
Without the agreement, it could be harder to gauge each other’s intentions, arms control advocates have said.
Trump cited the expense of keeping up the US nuclear arsenal as a motivating factor behind wanting to limit how many weapons are deployed.
“We’re talking about a nuclear agreement where we make less and they make less and maybe where we get rid of some of the tremendous firepower that we have right now,” he said.
Trump said that China during trade talks had “felt very strongly” about joining the US and Russia in limiting nuclear weapons.
“So I think we’re going to probably start up something very shortly between Russia and ourselves maybe to start off, and I think China will be added down the road. We’ll be talking about non-proliferation, we’ll be talking about a nuclear deal of some kind, and I think it’ll be a very comprehensive one,” he said.
The Kremlin said that the two sides confirmed they intend to “activate dialogue in various spheres, including strategic security.”
The two men, who last chatted informally at a dinner of world leaders in Buenos Aires on Dec. 1 last year, briefly talked about the report by US Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
Putin seemed amused, Trump said.
“He said something to the effect that it started off as a mountain and it ended up being a mouse, but he knew that because he knew there was no collusion whatsoever. Pretty much that’s what it was,” he said.
The Kremlin said that the call was initiated by Washington.
With the US concerned about a Russian military presence in Venezuela at a time when Washington wants Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to leave power, Trump told Putin “the United States stands with the people of Venezuela” and stressed that he wants to get relief supplies into the country, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.
Putin told Trump that any external interference in Venezuela’s internal business undermines the prospects of a political end to the crisis, the Kremlin said.
The two leaders also discussed Ukraine, with Putin telling Trump that the new leadership in Ukraine should take steps to solve the Ukrainian crisis, the Kremlin said.
Trump also raised with Putin the issue of getting North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.
The Kremlin said that both leaders highlighted the need to pursue denuclearization of the region.
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