Overview
- U.S. officials have discussed starting reciprocal inspections of nuclear labs and testing sites with Chinese counterparts, a development first reported Tuesday.
- So far the talks have been informal and held at working level on the sidelines of meetings of the five permanent U.N. Security Council members, not as formal treaty negotiations.
- Beijing initially floated the idea this year but continues to say its nuclear arsenal is much smaller than those of the United States and Russia and has resisted limits tied to that gap.
- The National Nuclear Security Administration recently conducted a 16‑ton underground non‑nuclear explosion at the Nevada site to test methods for detecting low‑signal or so‑called decoupled nuclear tests.
- Officials expect lower‑level talks to continue before likely Trump‑Xi meetings later this year and say the visits, if agreed, would help build technical verification that could enable wider arms‑control work.