China trails behind the United States and Russia as far as the number of nuclear weapons it possesses is concerned, told new Chinese Ambassador to Russia Zhang Hanhui.
According to the diplomat, it is absurd to point to China in order to justify Washington’s withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. “As for the amount of nuclear weapons China has, it is way less than what the US and Russia have. In no way can that be compared,” he stressed.
“The INF Treaty is a bilateral agreement between the US and Russia that account for more than 90% of the world’s nuclear arsenal,” the envoy said. He noted that China saw no need for its participation in the American-Russian nuclear disarmament negotiation process.
According to the ambassador, the US and Russia bear special responsibility for nuclear disarmament and must continue to reduce their nuclear arsenals in order to lay the groundwork for other countries with nuclear weapons to join a multilateral nuclear disarmament process.