, Columnist
China Has No Reason to Make a Deal on Nuclear Weapons
But the Trump administration is right that dealing only with Russia makes no sense.
Loading up on nukes.
Photographer: Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images
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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has informed his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, that any future agreement on nuclear-arms control between the U.S. and Russia must also include China. This shift to trilateral negotiations is part of the Trump administration’s effort to remake great-power arms control for a new era.
It’s a reasonable approach, which accurately holds that the old bilateral formula has become disconnected from reality. Whether the U.S. can build the leverage necessary to make this new approach succeed — particularly vis-à-vis China — is far less certain.