Preliminary Talks Between Washington and Beijing on Mutual Visits to Nuclear Sites

A CNN report revealed on Tuesday that informal preliminary talks are taking place between Washington and Beijing regarding the possibility of mutual visits to nuclear sites and facilities in both countries, as a measure to build confidence and increase transparency regarding nuclear activities.

According to the report, the idea was proposed by China itself during meetings with American officials earlier this year.

Among the proposals discussed were visits by American officials or experts to national laboratories of the US Department of Energy associated with nuclear activities, as well as visits by American delegations to similar Chinese sites.

Sources cited by the report indicated that there is American readiness to discuss visits to nuclear test sites as well, and that the visits would be reciprocal, meaning that American permission for Chinese access to specific sites would be matched by Chinese permission for Americans to visit similar Chinese sites.

These conversations have not turned into comprehensive formal negotiations, but rather took place primarily on the sidelines of meetings of the five permanent members of the Security Council.

The report states that Washington intends to continue pushing for the idea in the coming months, which means the topic is still in the stage of sounding out opinions and negotiating details.

The importance of this step comes from the fact that China has remained reserved about entering negotiations to limit nuclear weapons with the United States and Russia.

Beijing's main argument is that the American and Russian arsenals are much larger than the Chinese arsenal; therefore, it sees imposing restrictions on China alone or including it in agreements designed primarily for the two larger arsenals as unfair. However, allowing mutual visits to nuclear facilities could be a less sensitive step than signing a treaty to limit the number of nuclear warheads.

Nevertheless, this file was not discussed when US President Donald Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping last month, according to CNN sources.

Trump had called for trilateral arms limitation negotiations involving the United States, China, and Russia, but the issue of nuclear visits was not among the topics he directly discussed with Xi in that meeting.

The United States feels increasing concern over the expansion of the Chinese nuclear arsenal, while Beijing says its arsenal remains much smaller than those of the United States and Russia.

For this reason, Washington is trying to find a way to persuade China to increase nuclear transparency without immediately demanding a reduction in the number of nuclear warheads. Mutual visits can be a means to achieve that.