Russian President Vladimir Putin has backed a proposal from President Trump to cut military spending in half as part of a potential three-way arrangement between the US, Russia, and China.
“I think it’s a good idea. The US would cut by 50%, and we would cut by 50%, and then China would join if it wanted,” Putin said in an interview on Monday.
The Russian leader said he couldn’t speak for China but said Moscow could “come to an agreement with the US, we’re not against it.” He added that it was a “good proposal, and we are ready for a discussion about this.”
On Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian was asked if China supported the proposal. He didn’t give a direct answer but said China’s “limited defense spending is completely out of the need of safeguarding national sovereignty, security and development interests, and the need of maintaining world peace.”
As things stand, the US spends significantly more on its military than Russia and China combined. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), in 2023, the US accounted for 37% of global military spending. China came in second but was still far behind, accounting for 12% of military spending, and Russia was in third at 4.5%.
When Trump floated his proposal to cut spending, he also suggested the idea of denuclearization. “There’s no reason for us to be building brand new nuclear weapons. We already have so many you could destroy the world 50 times over or 100 times over. And here we are building new nuclear weapons, and [Russia] is building new nuclear weapons, and China is building new nuclear weapons,” he said.
While Trump seems to favor the idea of limiting military spending and reducing nuclear weapons, he is also advancing policies that will have the opposite effect. The president has backed a budget plan from House Republicans that will raise the US military budget by $100 billion and also signed an executive order to develop a massive new missile defense system, which risks starting a new arms race.
