U.S. tries to enlist Moscow's help to bring China into trilateral arms-control talks

The United States and Russia are set to meet for a new round of arms-control talks in Vienna, Austria, on June 22, Bloomberg reports.

A State Department official told Bloomberg the U.S. may be willing to extend the Obama-era New Start treaty, which caps both countries' nuclear arsenals, despite the Trump administration previously nixing Russia's attempts to open talks.

There still seems to be a catch, however. Washington is ready to sit down with Moscow, but the State Department official said the U.S. reserves the right to walk away from the discussions at any time. One of the U.S.'s main goals is to get Russia to help bring China to the table, so all three powers can commit to three-way arms control, and it sounds like extending the treaty could be dependent on Russia's efforts in that regard. Beijing has been invited to attend the Vienna negotiations, though its presence is reportedly not a precondition.

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China remains resistant to participating in any discussions, arguing that Russian and American nuclear stockpiles dwarf its own, which the Trump administration acknowledges. But the White House also believes Beijing is in the process of aggressively building up their cache, hence the U.S. insistence on China's eventual participation. Read more at Bloomberg.