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China has endorsed the proposed talks between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding the resolution of Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Russia and the U.S. are both influential powers, and China welcomes their efforts to strengthen communication and dialogue on a range of international issues, a spokesman for the Beijing Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.
China has consistently maintained that negotiations are the only viable path to resolving the crisis. From the beginning, President Xi Jinping has aimed for a political solution, the spokesman said.
Trump spoke with Putin on the phone on Wednesday and agreed to begin negotiations to end the war against Ukraine.
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At the same time, Trump’s administration publicly outlined how it envisions a deal to end the war for the first time – in several aspects aligning with Moscow’s interests.
China President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump
Recently, Washington and Moscow are preparing negotiations on a successor to the New START treaty capping their countries' nuclear arsenals.
However, China has so far rejected pressure from the Trump administration to join the talks, saying that its arsenal is far smaller than that of the two former Cold War foes.
In a call with Putin, Trump;
reiterated his hope of avoiding an expensive three-way arms race between China, Russia, and the United States and looked forward to progress on upcoming arms control negotiations in Vienna, a White House spokesman said.
According to the Kremlin, the two leaders confirmed the "urgency" of holding bilateral talks on "strategic stability and arms control."
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They also discussed "the situation around the Iranian nuclear program" and underlined the "need for collective action," the Kremlin statement continued.
Trump has torn up an international agreement intended to reward Iran for allowing verification that its civilian nuclear program, which is supported by Russia, cannot be converted to military use.
According to Washington, Iran is hiding a military program to build weapons capacity.
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English (US) ·