Trump’s Nuclear Disarmament Proposals ‘Not Serious’: Kremlin

BEIJING (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s nuclear disarmament proposals are “frivolous,” a Kremlin spokesman said on Saturday. Trump has ordered his administration to prepare efforts to reach new arms control agreements with Russia and China, citing the costs of a nuclear arms race in the 21st century, The Washington Post reported Thursday, citing administration officials. “It would be ideal to rid the entire world of nuclear weapons… but on the other hand we would be deprived of the deterrent,” Dmitry Peskov told reporters on the sidelines of a summit on China’s Belt and Road plan. “Don’t forget about the deterrent factor, about deterrent parity,” he said. Peskov also said that during Friday’s meeting, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping held substantive talks and exchanged views on Syria, Venezuela and Libya. (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; writing by Beijing Monitoring Office; editing by Michael Perry)