Trump Announces He Will Meet on Arms Control with Leaders of Russia, China, Britain, and France
Feb. 29, 2020 (EIRNS)—President Donald Trump stated during a press conference at the White House today, that he will be meeting with the heads of state or government of the other four permanent members of the UN Security Council—Russia, China, France and Great Britain—to discuss arms control and related strategic issues. In his response to the last question at today’s press conference, he confirmed earlier press reports that such a meeting would occur, adding that it be held in New York—presumably at the time of the UN General Assembly—and that China, Russia and other nations want to discuss these matters, which is a wise thing, just as the United States also wants to have such a discussion.
Reuters had reported earlier on Saturday that an unnamed high-ranking official in the U.S. administration had stated that “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 United States will work with the other P5 countries to develop and organize such a meeting.”
In its coverage of these remarks, TASS made the point that this idea parallels Russian President Putin’s earlier call for a summit of the P5 by the end of this year. Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche supported Putin’s call when he first made it, noting that it moved in the same general direction of her own early January proposal that the leaders of the United States Russia and China, in particular, had to meet to address the global security crisis, in the wake of the assassination of Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani.