- WIADOMOŚCI
- ANALIZA
Trump wants US-Russia-China arms talks. Putin invited to the G20
The most important security signal from Xi Jinping’s visit to Washington is the US proposal for trilateral arms-control negotiations involving the United States, Russia and China. Donald Trump raised the idea directly during his talks with Xi. At the same time, relations between Washington and Beijing are being managed without a new escalation, while Vladimir Putin has been invited to the G20 summit in Miami. The United States is clearly trying to reopen channels between the three major nuclear powers.
The arms-control proposal matters most. Trump wants Washington, Moscow and Beijing to sit at one table and discuss nuclear weapons and wider arms control. China has so far remained outside the traditional US-Russia arms-control architecture, and Beijing has not yet announced that it will join such negotiations. Nevertheless, raising the proposal directly at the presidential level is already significant. If this format develops, the negotiations could become one of the most important security processes of the coming years.
The second important element is the tone of US-China relations. The meeting did not remove disputes over Taiwan, trade, technology or Iran, but both sides are clearly trying to keep competition under control. Washington continues to support Taiwan’s defence, while Beijing continues to demand changes in the American position. However, nothing from the summit suggests that either side currently wants Taiwan to become the flashpoint of an immediate military crisis.
One particularly unusual episode also shows how open the conversation became. US Ambassador to China David Perdue said that Trump asked Xi whether China would be interested in buying American weapons. The White House later said there were no plans for such sales. The proposal therefore has no practical effect at this stage, but the fact that such a question was raised at all says a great deal about the character of the current Trump-Xi dialogue.
The third element is Russia. The United States has invited Vladimir Putin to the G20 summit in Miami in December. Moscow has not yet confirmed whether Putin will attend, but the invitation itself is another indication that Washington wants to restore direct political contact with Russia and keep Moscow involved in discussions with the world’s largest powers.
The picture is therefore becoming clearer. The United States wants a calmer relationship with China, renewed contact with Russia and, above all, a new trilateral format on arms control. If Washington manages to bring Moscow and Beijing into one negotiating process, it will be a major development. For now, this is still the beginning of a process, but the direction is quite visible. The US wants the three nuclear powers talking to each other rather than managing every crisis separately.
