US, China in talks for reciprocal visits to nuclear sites in bid to build trust

The United States has discussed starting reciprocal visits to nuclear sites with China, amid efforts to build mutual trust and prevent an arms race between the rivals.According to a Tuesday report by CNN, the US plans to continue pushing for that possibility during in-person meetings in the coming months.The talks reportedly proposed visits to the US department of energy national labs and to China’s equivalent facilities.Additionally, the US would be open to discussing visits to nuclear testing sites, a source told CNN.The US is reportedly concerned about China’s rapidly growing nuclear weapons program. Furthermore, the USA's last remaining arms control agreement with Russia expired in 2025.The efforts to establish a trilateral agreement with China and Russia began in President Donald Trump’s initial term, but largely went in vain, with China and Russia largely ignoring the US outreach.Beijing has maintained that its nuclear arsenal is much smaller than those of Russia and the US, and argues that this makes its involvement in such negotiations unnecessary.However, according to CNN, the current idea of reciprocal visits was initially raised by Beijing as an indication of openness to confidence-building measures. The discussions have been at the working level between American and Chinese officials, on the sidelines of gatherings by the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.

Former acting assistant secretary of state Paul Dean, who oversaw US arms control efforts, told CNN that the administration should enter any nuclear talks with China with its "eyes wide open."He added, however, that reciprocal visits would be "an extremely valuable confidence-building measure" and could build the informational and diplomatic groundwork for further efforts to reduce nuclear risk between the two nations."This is a very dangerous time, and there are very few guardrails in place on the US-China nuclear relationship," said Dean, who is now a vice president at the nonprofit Nuclear Threat Initiative.A further Trump-Xi meeting this year is widely seen as likely, possibly at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in China in November or at the Group of 20 meetings in the US in December.According to the official quoted by CNN, lower-level talks on possible nuclear site visits are expected to take place before the two leaders meet again.