President Donald Trump said on Thursday he wants to build up the U.S. nuclear arsenal to ensure it is at the "top of the pack".
Speaking to the Reuters news agency in an interview, Trump said the United States has "fallen behind on nuclear weapon capacity."
“I am the first one that would like to see everybody - nobody have nukes, but we’re never going to fall behind any country even if it’s a friendly country, we’re never going to fall behind on nuclear power,” said the President.
"It would be wonderful, a dream would be that no country would have nukes, but if countries are going to have nukes, we’re going to be at the top of the pack," Trump added.
The new strategic arms limitation treaty, known as New START, between the U.S. and Russia requires that by February 5, 2018, both countries must limit their arsenals of strategic nuclear weapons to equal levels for 10 years.
In the interview, Trump called New START "a one-sided deal” and added, "Just another bad deal that the country made, whether it's START, whether it's the Iran deal ... We're going to start making good deals.”
In December, shortly before he was sworn in, Trump called for the United States to "greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability" until the rest of the world "comes to its senses" regarding nuclear weapons.
Trump made the statement on Twitter and did not expand on the actions he wants the U.S. to take on the matter.
In his interview with Reuters, the President also blasted North Korea over its repeated ballistic missile tests, saying "we're very angry" about them.
Trump said China could solve the national security challenge posed by North Korea "very easily if they want to".
“[I]t's a very dangerous situation, and China can end it very quickly in my opinion."