United States President Donald Trump has proposed talks with Russia and China to discuss reducing all three countries’ nuclear stockpiles and slashing their defence budgets in half.
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Thursday, Trump said he hoped to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin “when things calm down”.
President Donald Trump listens as he meets with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, in Washington. (Photo/Alex Brandon)
“When we straighten it all out, then I want one of the first meetings I have [to be] with President Xi of China, President Putin of Russia. And I want to say, let’s cut our military budget in half,” Trump said ahead of a summit meeting with Indian President Narendra Modi.
“We’re going to have them spend a lot less money,” Trump added. “We’re going to spend a lot less money. And I know they’re going to do it.”
Trump said that there was “no reason” to build new nuclear weapons when existing arsenals could destroy the world “100 times over” and public funds could be spent on “other things that are actually hopefully much more productive”.
Speaking a day after discussing negotiations to end the war in Ukraine in a phone call with Putin, Trump said he and the Russian leader had agreed to pursue arms reduction “in a very big way”.
“And here we are, building new nuclear weapons and they’re building nuclear weapons and China is building nuclear weapons and China is trying to catch up because you know, they’re very substantially behind, but within five or six years, they’ll be even,” Trump said.
Trump said that it would be a “sad day” if Russia & the US ever needed to use its nuclear weapons.
“That’s going to be probably oblivion,” he said.
Russia and the US account for the vast majority of the world’s nuclear weapons stockpile, possessing an estimated 10,805 warheads between them, according to the Arms Control Association, a US-based nonprofit.
