INF Treaty must remain two-party, says official

China will not consent to making the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty multilateral, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Tuesday, three days before the treaty is to expire.

Hua also urged the United States to honestly comply with the bilateral deal between Washington and Moscow and further reduce its nuclear weapons as the world's largest nuclear-weapons state instead of shirking its responsibilities and passing them on to third parties.

Hua made the remarks after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday at the Economic Club of Washington that his country hopes Moscow will be supportive of the efforts to engage China in negotiations on nonproliferation, Russian news agency Sputnik reported.