(Reuters) -China has agreed to hold nuclear arms control talks with the United States next week, the first since the Obama administration, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
The discussions are aimed at avoiding a dangerous three-way arms race between the United States, China and Russia but do not constitute the beginning of formal negotiations toward limits on nuclear weapons, the Journal reported.
A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request by Reuters for comment.Teams for U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping have an agreement in principle for the two leaders to meet in San Francisco in November, although important details have yet to be hammered out, a senior Biden administration official said on Tuesday.
A flurry of bilateral diplomatic engagements in recent months, largely at U.S. request, has sought to salvage what were rapidly deteriorating ties between Beijing and Washington following the U.S. downing of an alleged Chinese spy balloon over the United States.
(Reporting by Jasper Ward and Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Tim Ahmann and Sandra Maler)
