President Donald Trump floated the idea that the United States, China, and Russia may come together to discuss…
President Donald Trump floated the idea that the United States, China, and Russia may come together to discuss collectively cutting back on weaponry investments.
“I am certain that, at some time in the future, [Chinese] President Xi [Jinping] and I, together with President [Vladimir] Putin of Russia, will start talking about a meaningful halt to what has become a major and uncontrollable Arms Race,” the president wrote in a Dec. 3 tweet . “The U. S. spent 716 Billion Dollars this year. Crazy!”
Trump has made it one of his priorities to increase military spending, convincing Congress to approve $700 billion last fiscal year and $716 billion this one. But he also hinted that his reasons had to do with countering the military buildup of China and Russia.
In March, he said one of his priorities for meeting with Putin was “to discuss the arms race, which is getting out of control.”
“We will never allow anybody to have anything even close to what we have,” he said .
After meeting Putin in Helsinki in July, Trump said “the reduction of nuclear weapons throughout the world” was “perhaps the most important issue… discussed.”
No concrete agreement, however, came out of the talks.
Instead, Trump said he’ll quit the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty with Russia. The treaty doesn’t allow participating countries to “possess, produce, or flight-test” a ground-launched cruise missile with a range of between 310 and 3,420 miles or to possess or produce launchers of such missiles.
The United States and the then-Soviet Union destroyed nearly 2,700 missiles by the treaty’s deadline in 1991.
But for five years, the United States has maintained that the Russian 9M729 missile violates the agreement, as its range exceeds 310 miles.
