Amid growing concerns over a nuclear arms race between the U.S. and China driven by Beijing's rapid nuclear buildup, the two sides have reportedly been discussing proposals to visit each other's nuclear-related facilities.

CNN reported on the 6th, citing multiple sources, that the Donald Trump administration has discussed the issue of mutual visits to nuclear facilities with Chinese officials and plans to continue pursuing the plan in upcoming face-to-face meetings over the next few months.

The discussions are still in an unofficial, early stage, and the initiative was reportedly first proposed by the Chinese side during meetings between U.S. and Chinese officials held this year.

The two sides have discussed visiting national laboratories under the U.S. Department of Energy and corresponding facilities in China, and sources noted that the U.S. side is also willing to discuss mutual visits to nuclear test sites.

The working-level discussions on nuclear issues took place on the sidelines of meetings involving the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (P5).

These discussions come at a time when the New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), the final nuclear arms control pact between the U.S. and Russia, expired on February 5, leaving no treaties in place to restrict nuclear weapons between the two countries.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio pointed out the limitations of the New START treaty last February and stated that the U.S., China, and Russia should engage in a new nuclear arms reduction negotiation together to limit the number of nuclear weapons.

Observers note that if mutual visits to nuclear facilities between the U.S. and China materialize, it could serve as a step toward building mutual trust in the nuclear sector.

There is also a possibility that it could lay the groundwork for the trilateral nuclear arms reduction negotiations among the U.S., China, and Russia that the Trump administration has been pushing for.

Currently, the U.S. possesses approximately 5,000 nuclear warheads, far more than China's roughly 600, but China is rapidly expanding its nuclear infrastructure and is projected to produce hundreds of additional nuclear warheads over the next decade.

While President Trump expressed support for trilateral U.S.-China-Russia nuclear arms reduction talks during his summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping last month, a U.S. official noted that the issue of mutual nuclear facility visits was not discussed at that meeting.

President Xi reportedly left no room for trilateral arms reduction talks, pointing out that the nuclear stockpiles of the U.S. and Russia are larger than China's.

China maintains the position that it is difficult to participate in discussions limiting its nuclear weapons stockpile until its nuclear capabilities reach a level comparable to that of the U.S.

However, with President Trump and President Xi scheduled to meet two more times this year, CNN projected that additional working-level discussions regarding mutual nuclear facility visits are likely to take place before then.

Some individuals within the U.S. have pointed out the need to remain cautious about the intentions behind China's initial proposal for mutual nuclear facility visits.

Gerald Brown, a former intelligence analyst at the U.S. Department of State, stated that China's continuous nuclear buildup is "deeply intertwined with political goals, namely its aggressive ambitions toward Taiwan."

He also pointed out that China has historically viewed nuclear negotiations as a "tool to extract political concessions" regarding the Taiwan issue.

U.S. distrust regarding China's nuclear activities also persists.

The Trump administration has claimed that China conducted a covert nuclear test in 2020 using a "decoupling" method to evade seismic wave detection.

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced that it conducted a 16-ton non-nuclear underground explosion experiment last week at the Nevada National Security Site to test its capability to detect such methods of nuclear testing.

(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)