US Official: (New START) Nuclear Arms Treaty suffers major gaps due to China's absence

GENEVA, Feb 6 (KUNA) -- A senior US. official said on Friday that the New START Treaty suffers from significant shortcomings since it does not include China and fails to cover all categories of long-range nuclear weapons.
This came during a press briefing in Geneva held by the US. Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Thomas G. DiNanno, ahead of his participation in the Conference on Disarmament, stated that President Donald Trump is seeking to reach a "better and more comprehensive" nuclear arms agreement to replace New START which expired on Thursday.
"As we all know New START expired yesterday," DiNanno said. "In a nutshell New START treaty was flawed. It didn't cover their long-range nuclear weapons, and it didn't include China", describing this as a fundamental gap in the agreement.
The US undersecretary of State noted that the current US administration believes there is a pressing need for a new more inclusive framework that addresses these gaps particularly at a time when international security challenges and nuclear competition are on the rise.
President Trump called yesterday for a new nuclear treaty with Russia, which comes after the expiration of New START treaty, which for years represented the last legally binding framework limiting the number of deployed nuclear warheads held by Washington and Moscow.
According to Media, Russia previously expressed regret over the treaty's expiration and called for the preservation of strategic stability For the meantime The United States continued its efforts to involve China in future arms control negotiations though. China has so far rejected joining the process arguing that its nuclear capabilities are not comparable to those of the United States and Russia. (end) imk.hs