WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump said he wants to open denuclearization talks with Russia and China, revisiting an issue he previously raised as he also seeks to restart stalled diplomacy with North Korea.
"One of the things we're trying to do with Russia and with China is denuclearization, and it's very important," Trump told reporters ahead of his meeting on Monday with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung at the White House.
"I think the denuclearization is a very — it's a big aim,
but Russia is willing to do it, and I think China is going to be willing to do it too. We can't let nuclear weapons proliferate. We have to stop nuclear weapons. The power is too great," Trump said.
At a separate White House event earlier on Monday, Trump said he had raised the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He did not share specific details on when the conversation took place.
"We're talking about limiting nuclear weapons. We'll get China into that," Trump said.
"China is way behind, but they'll catch us in five years. We would like to denuclearize. It's too much power, and we talked about that also," Trump added.
The U.S. president's comments come as he expressed his desire to meet with North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un this year.
Kim has ignored Trump's repeated calls since the Republican president took office in January to revive the direct diplomacy Trump pursued during his 2017–2021 term in office, which produced no deal to halt North Korea's nuclear program.
Trump had first laid out his intention to pursue nuclear arms control efforts in February, saying he wanted to begin discussions with both Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping about imposing limits on their arsenals.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office at the time, Trump said denuclearization would be a goal of his second term and that he hoped to get started in the "not too distant future".
The renewed focus on nuclear arms control comes as the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or New START, is set to expire on February 5, 2026. The treaty, signed in 2010, is the last remaining nuclear arms agreement between the U.S. and Russia and limits the number of strategic warheads and delivery systems each side can deploy.
Russia warned earlier this year that prospects for renewing the treaty appeared dim. Under Trump's predecessor, then-President Joe Biden, the U.S. had pushed China to engage in formal nuclear arms talks, but made little progress.
(Reporting by Steve Holland, Nandita Bose and Susan Heavey; Editing by Alex Richardson)
