Opening nuclear talks with Russia, US may also be ending them

WASHINGTON: The United States and Russia on Monday open talks on their last major nuclear agreement — but for some observers, it may simply be the beginning of the end. President Donald Trump´s administration has insisted, to no avail, that China join the discussions in Vienna on New START, the treaty that caps US and Russian nuclear warheads.

New START expires on February 5 — presenting an extraordinarily tight deadline to renew a complex deal, let alone negotiate a new treaty involving a third power.

Marshall Billingslea, the US envoy, has ramped up pressure on Beijing, saying that its role will be a factor in determining if the Vienna session is constructive.

China — whose nuclear arsenal is rapidly expanding but is still far smaller than the US and Russian programs — has repeatedly declined to take part, amid tensions with the Trump administration on multiple fronts.

Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, a Washington-based research group, said the insistence on including China showed the Trump administration was not serious.

“The only conclusion I can come to is that Marshall Billingslea and the Trump administration do not intend to extend New START and are seeking to display China´s disinterest in trilateral arms control talks as a cynical excuse to allow New START to expire,“ he said. The Trump administration has already left two treaties with Russia — on overflights and on intermediate-range nuclear forces. Russia, to be led in Vienna by Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, has proposed simply extending New START to allow time to negotiate.