Kremlin: Trump proposals on nuclear arms disarmament ‘not serious’

The Kremlin says Donald Trump’s proposals on nuclear arms disarmament are “not serious,” after media reports said the US president had ordered his administration to prepare for a new arms-control agreement with Russia and China.

"It would be ideal to clean up the whole world from the nuclear weapon...but on the other hand we would have been deprived from the deterrent factor," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Saturday.

"Don't forget about the deterrent factor, about the deterrent parity,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a summit on China's Belt and Road plan in the Chinese capital Beijing.

Peskov’s remarks came after US administration officials told CNN on Friday that Trump was aiming for a grand nuclear deal with Russia and China.

The White House, the broadcaster said, had engaged in intense talks to develop options for him to pursue the initiative after the expiration of the New START Treaty in 2021.

PressTV-'Trump seeks major nuclear deal with Russia, China'

US President Donald Trump is aiming for a grand nuclear deal with Russia and China as the White House has engaged in intense talks to develop options for the American head of state to pursue the initiative, according to a US media report.

"The President has made clear that he thinks that arms control should include Russia and China and should include all the weapons, all the warheads, all the missiles," a senior White House official told CNN.

"We have an ambition to give the President options as quickly as possible to give him as much space on the calendar as possible," the official added, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Trump administration has not set out a timeline for negotiations over the new nuclear arms control deal or even raised the prospect with China and Russia.

The New START treaty, signed in 2010, limits both the US and Russia to deploying 1,550 nuclear warheads over 700 delivery systems, including intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and long-range bombers.

The treaty is set to expire in 2021 but could be extended for up to five years if the two sides agree.

Trump’s new proposal comes only two months after he announced that he was suspending the Cold War-era Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) with Russia.

PressTV-US ignored Russia's nuclear war prevention pact: Report

The United States ignored a draft joint declaration by Russia on how to prevent nuclear war, according to a Russian newspaper.

In February, the US president announced that Washington would unilaterally withdraw from INF over Russia’s deployment of the 9M729 cruise missile, which American officials claim violates the existing limitations.

Moscow has repeatedly denied the allegations that the missile violates the 1987 accord.

The INF banned all land-based missiles with ranges of 500 kilometers (310 miles) to 5,500 miles. The original ban between Moscow and Washington led to the elimination of 2,692 missiles.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has reciprocated Trump's move by suspending the historic nuclear arms treaty.

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