Trump wants nuke deal with Russia, China – hopes to “halve” military budgets – National & International News – THU 13Feb2025
Trump wants nuke deal with Russia, China – hopes to “halve” military budgets.
Hamas agrees to resume hostage releases after mediation.
Trump wants nuke deal with Russia, China – hopes to “halve” military budgets
“We’re all spending a lot of money that we could be spending on other things that are actually, hopefully, much more productive”, President Trump said today while explaining to reporters his ambitions to restart nuclear arms control talks with Russia and China.
“There’s no reason for us to be building brand new nuclear weapons. We already have so many. You could destroy the world 50 times over, 100 times over. And here we are building new nuclear weapons, and they’re building nuclear weapons”.
The US and Russia have massive nuclear arsenals dating back to the Cold War. Each country spends millions a year to keep them updated, usable, and to replace them as needed. Trump said that China was perhaps “five or six years” away from building an equivalent nuclear arsenal to those held by the US and Russia. If these arsenals ever were used, “that’s going to be probably oblivion,” Trump said.
“One of the first meetings I want to have is with President Xi of China, President Putin of Russia. And I want to say: ‘Let’s cut our military budget in half.’ And we can do that, and I think we’ll be able to”.
Rebuilding bridges with Russia
During his first term, Trump began negotiating with Russia to extend a nuclear arms pact known as New Start. Trump was unable to bring China into those talks. Russia ceased its participation during the Ukraine War as a response to increasing military brinksmanship under the Biden administration.
Trump hopes that these nuclear talks will recommence after “we straighten it all out” in the Middle East and in Ukraine. He also renewed calls to re-admit Russia to the G7. Russia’s G7 membership was suspended after the annexation of Crimea in 2014.
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Hamas agrees to resume hostage releases after mediation
Today, Hamas announced that it would release three Israeli hostages as scheduled on Saturday after assurances from mediators in Egypt and Qatar. In response, Israel has said it would also adhere to the hostage release schedule if Hamas does.
Hamas says it has received assurances from Qatar and Egypt that Israel remains committed to continuing the ceasefire. However, Israeli officials have said publicly that they are not yet participating in negotiations towards phase two (which would require the withdrawal of all Israeli forces from Gaza) and that they have other items on the agenda.
Israeli ceasefire violations
Earlier this week, Hamas announced that it would be suspending releases of Israeli hostages until further notice, sparking fears that the fragile ceasefire between Hamas and Israel would collapse.
In its statements, Hamas cited numerous violations of the ceasefire by Israel since the ceasefire went into effect last month. Hamas submitted a detailed document to the ceasefire mediators listing specific violations. These include the killings of over 100 people in Gaza by Israeli airstrikes and gunfire; blocking of aid Israel is required to admit per the agreement (including temporary shelters and equipment to remove rubble and recover bodies); further demolitions of houses; unwarranted delays in releasing Palestinian prisoners; and blocking Palestinians from returning to their homes in the North. Both the mediators and Israeli officials have admitted that Hamas’s allegations are correct.
Nevertheless, following Hamas’s announcement, Israeli officials, including defense minister Israel Katz, accused Hamas of breaking the ceasefire and threatened further military action against Gaza. They have already boosted their troop presence in and around the Gaza Strip and have carried out deadly airstrikes this week.
Rubio seeks “better” alternatives to Trump’s Gaza plan
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is headed to the Middle East to speak with Arab partners in the region. He said today that Israel resuming fighting would be counterproductive. However, he is seeking a “better plan” from Arab partners to resolve the Gaza question, meaning a better plan than the US takeover proposed by President Trump.
Trump’s plan would require other countries, preferably Arab countries, to take in Gaza’s population of about 2 million people while the strip is rebuilt with both US and foreign investment. Trump has repeatedly stated that he wants to build a “Gaza Riviera”, owned by the United States. In his vision, there would be no place for Gaza’s current inhabitants.
Arab countries have uniformly and repeatedly rejected this plan, or any suggestion that they should take in Palestinian refugees. While it is impossible to conduct scientific polls in Gaza under the circumstances, it also seems likely that most of the Palestinians themselves would resist any plan that removes them from their land with no prospect of return.
Trump’s Gaza takeover plan has also polled extremely poorly among the American people (in this YouGov poll and this Data for Progress poll), even among Republicans.
Referring to the Arab countries, Rubio said, “They don’t like it, but the only plan right now is the Trump plan. If they’ve got a better plan, now’s the time to present it. So we’re looking forward to that”.
