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Trilateral Arms Control? Perspectives From Washington, Moscow, and Beijing

As the world enters an age of seemingly unconstrained great power competition, arms control between Russia, China, and the United States could help strengthen arms race and crisis stability and provide a platform for strategic dialogue.

by Ulrich Kühn, Alexey Arbatov, David Santoro, and Tong Zhao
published by
IFSH
 on March 19, 2020

Source: IFSH

With the end of the INF Treaty in 2019, trilateral arms control – meaning arms control between the United States, Russia, and China – has gained center stage. Only shortly after the U.S. withdrawal, U.S. President Trump declared that he wants a new nuclear pact to be signed by both Russia and China. Other U.S. administration officials have set the goal of including China in a future follow-on framework to the New START agreement, which expires in February 2021. However, could trilateral arms control be possible at all, and what would be necessary conditions?

In this IFSH Research Report, internationally renowned experts Alexey Arbatov (Russia), David Santoro (United States), and Tong Zhao (China) discuss what is possible and what is not. Edited by Ulrich Kühn (IFSH), the report includes a number of very specific proposals, including from China, on how to move forward on trilateral arms control.

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The full report was originally published by IFSH.

Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

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