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Trump wants 'meaningful halt' in arms race with Russia, China

By REBECCA MORIN

President Donald Trump on Monday expressed hope that he and the presidents of China and Russia might jointly agree to scale back defense spending, writing on Twitter that he was "certain" that such talks would take place and calling the amount of money the U.S. spends on defense "crazy."

"I am certain that, at some time in the future, President Xi and I, together with President Putin of Russia, will start talking about a meaningful halt to what has become a major and uncontrollable Arms Race," the president wrote online. "The U.S. spent 716 Billion Dollars this year. Crazy!"

Trump's tweet comes on the heels of G-20 summit, where he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and had an informal talk with Russian President Vladimir Putin. A formal, bilateral meeting with Putin had initially been scheduled for Trump's G-20 trip but was canceled in the wake of Russian military aggression against Ukraine.

The U.S. president did not outline what further steps he might take towards ramping down defense spending by three of the world's largest militaries. He has long pledged to strengthen the U.S. military but has also complained often about spending on a government-wide basis.

Trump announced last October that his administration would pull out of the landmark 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which bans the deployment of intermediate-range missiles on land, claiming that Russia violated the treaty. The treaty, which offered some protection to European allies, eliminated ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges between approximately 300 and 3,400 miles.

In addition, New START, a separate nuclear weapons reduction treat, is set to expire in 2021. Russia has called for extending the treaty for another five years, a step the U.S. has yet to agree to.