Trump says he is discussing nuclear disarmament with Russia and China

President Donald Trump said Thursday, October 15, 2026, that his administration is talking with Russia and China about nuclear disarmament, presenting the contacts as an attempt to reduce the cost and danger of the world’s largest weapons stockpiles. Trump made the statement during a Rose Garden lunch at the White House, according to Reuters and an official White House video of the event.

Trump did not identify the officials involved, describe a negotiating channel or say whether the discussions had produced proposals. Russia and China did not immediately announce matching three-way negotiations in the reporting reviewed for this article. His statement therefore establishes that the president says contacts are underway; it does not by itself confirm a formal arms-control process or an agreement among the three governments.

What Trump said

Speaking about the scale of military spending, Trump said the United States is talking to both Moscow and Beijing about denuclearization. He argued that the countries spend enormous sums on nuclear arms that he described as so destructive they should never be used. He did not call for unilateral U.S. reductions and did not provide a timetable, targets or verification terms.

The distinction matters because nuclear disarmament can describe several different goals. It may refer to broad reductions in total arsenals, limits on deployed strategic weapons, controls on particular missile systems, restrictions on testing or the eventual elimination of nuclear weapons. Trump’s remarks did not specify which of those outcomes he is pursuing.

A gap after New START

The comments come after the February 5, 2026, expiration of New START, the last treaty that placed numerical limits on deployed U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear forces. The agreement capped each side at 1,550 deployed strategic warheads and set limits on deployed missiles and heavy bombers. Its verification system had already been disrupted after Russia suspended participation in 2023, although Moscow said at the time that it would continue observing the central numerical limits through the treaty’s expiration.

The United States and Russia still possess most of the world’s nuclear weapons. China has a smaller but expanding arsenal and has historically resisted joining a three-country framework on the same terms, arguing that Washington and Moscow should make deeper reductions first. Those differences make a trilateral agreement more complicated than extending a bilateral limit.

What remains unknown

Trump has previously advocated nuclear talks involving all three powers, so the new statement is a claim of active communication rather than the first time he has expressed the goal. The potentially significant development would be confirmation that officials are discussing concrete ceilings, verification and enforcement after New START. No such details were disclosed Thursday.

Any durable arms-control deal would have to address difficult questions, including which weapons count, how compliance can be inspected, whether nonstrategic weapons are covered and how new technologies are treated. A treaty would also face domestic approval requirements. Executive-level contacts can begin that process, but they are not equivalent to a negotiated or legally binding accord.

For now, Trump’s remarks signal that he wants nuclear restraint on the agenda with Presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. Whether that develops into formal talks will depend on public confirmation from Moscow and Beijing and on the administration providing a defined proposal. Until then, the scope and status of the conversations remain unclear.

Sources and image credit

Reporting and primary record: Reuters and the official White House video of Trump’s October 15 remarks. Treaty background: Arms Control Association overview of New START.

Image: President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at Zhongnanhai on May 15, 2026, photographed by the White House, via Wikimedia Commons. U.S. federal government work marked public domain. The image was center-cropped and resized to 1600×900; no text was added.