SpaceWar.com reports: “The United States on Friday urged three-way talks with Russia and China to set new limits on nuclear weapons, as it accused Beijing of conducting secret nuclear tests and dramatically swelling its arsenal.

A day after the expiration of New START — the last treaty between top nuclear powers Washington and Moscow — Beijing reiterated that it did not plan to join disarmament negotiations ‘at this stage’.

Russia meanwhile suggested other nuclear-armed states such as Britain and France should be included in any talks.

‘Arms control can no longer be a bilateral issue between the United States and Russia,’ US Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote in an online essay.

‘Other countries have a responsibility to help ensure strategic stability, none more so than China.’…”