GENEVA – US officials met with a Russian Federation delegation in Geneva on Monday to discuss the possibility of negotiating a multilateral nuclear arms control treaty, according to a US State Department official cited by Reuters.
The official said that the United States plans to meet with a China delegation later on February 24, following earlier successful bilateral talks with United Kingdom and France, both permanent members of the UN Security Council. He described expanding discussions to include all five permanent members as “the next logical step” toward a broader arms control framework.
The meetings come in the wake of the expiration of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START Treaty) on February 5. The treaty, which previously imposed legal restrictions on the deployment of nuclear weapons, was not extended, with Washington placing the blame on its own decision-making. US officials have indicated that they aim to negotiate a more comprehensive agreement, incorporating China, as a way to modernize and expand nuclear arms control efforts.
Russia, however, has pushed back on the US approach. Gennady Gatilov, Russia’s permanent representative to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva, emphasized that if the United States intends to include China in a multilateral nuclear dialogue, it should also involve the United Kingdom and France — Washington’s NATO allies — to ensure fairness and balance in negotiations.
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