Moscow - China is "not interested" in negotiating with the
United States on nuclear arms control, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang
Yi said on Monday in the southern Russian city of Sochi.
US President Donald Trump has suggested that the US could clinch an
arms control deal with Russia and China as the US pulls out of a
bilateral treaty with Russia that has restricted ground-launched,
nuclear-capable missiles since the Soviet era.
"China is not interested and does not consider it necessary" to join
such negotiations between the US and Russia, Wang said in comments
carried by Russian state news agency TASS.
Wang, who met with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov during the day,
called for the US to "return as soon as possible" to the
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with Russia.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was scheduled to meet with Lavrov
and possibly Russian President Vladimir Putin the following day on
his first visit to Russia as the US top diplomat.
Earlier this year, the US announced that it was suspending its
participation in the decades-old INF Treaty, claiming that Russia had
violated it with a missile capable of reaching the banned range of
500 to 5,500 kilometres.
Russia, which has rejected the allegation, promptly responded to the
US announcement by saying it was also withdrawing.