The White House is trying to broker a three-way arms control pact with Russia and China, a senior administration official said Friday.

A proposed meeting between the three nations is expected to also include the leaders of Britain and France, the remaining countries that make up the so-called P5, the UN Security Council's five permanent members.

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"The United States will use this opportunity to bring both Russia and China into the international arms control framework and head off a costly arms race," the senior official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The official would not speculate on where a P5 summit would take place, but one option could be the UN General Assembly, where world leaders gather every September.

"The president has made clear that he is ready to meet with any world leader at any time to advance US national security interests. The United States will work with the other P5 countries to develop and organize such a meeting," the official added.

Current US-Russia deal ends in 2021

The current US-Russia arrangement is the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New Start) pact which limits the number of deployed nuclear warheads, missiles and bombers. However, it is due to expire in 2021.

It is the only remaining nuclear arms control treaty between the countries after Moscow and Washington both withdrew from the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty earlier this year.

There had been talk of extending the existing treaty, but the White House thinks the next control pact should also include China, which is expected to more than double its stockpile during the next decade. Russia has also indicated it would be willing to include China in any future agreement.

Last December, President Trump told reporters: "Russia wants to make a deal very much on arms control and nuclear. And that's smart. And so do we. We think it would be a good thing. And we'll also certainly bring in, as you know, China. And we may bring them in later, or we may bring them in now."

jsi/aw (AP, Reuters)

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