ISTANBUL

China on Friday said that it is "unfair, unreasonable, and unfeasible" to require Beijing to join nuclear arms-control talks after US President Donald Trump said he discussed denuclearization with China and Russia.

"China's nuclear forces are not on the same scale as those of the US and Russia; it would be unfair, unreasonable and impractical at this stage to require China to join nuclear arms-control talks," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said, according to the state-run Global Times.

"As the country with the largest nuclear arsenal, the US should earnestly fulfill its special and primary responsibility for nuclear disarmament, further and substantially reduce its nuclear stockpile, and create conditions for achieving comprehensive and complete nuclear disarmament," Mao added.

Beijing's reaction follows Trump stating that he has spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping about denuclearization, which would be a "great thing."

"We could blow up the world 150 times. There's no need for this. I’ve spoken to President Putin about it, I've spoken to President Xi about it -- and everybody would like to spend all of that money on other things," the White House posted on the US social media company X, quoting Trump as saying earlier in the day.