The talks between Washington and Pyongyang on the Korean Peninsula denuclearization might possibly be disrupted due to the vast nuclear fuel reserves possessed by… Japan, a former Obama administration official has warned.

"There are particular concerns that it [Japan's plutonium stockpile] could provide a rationale for nuclear weapon ownership to North Korea, which has nuclear nonproliferation as a goal," Thomas Countryman, a former US assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation under the Barack Obama administration, told the Japanese Tokyo Shimbun newspaper. He went on to say that US President Donald Trump and the current administration "also share these concerns."

Japan indeed possesses vast plutonium reserves, which amount to no less than 46.9 tons, according to the Japanese media. Only 9.8 tons of plutonium are stockpiled in Japan, though, while 37.1 tons are kept overseas. Still, the total amount of the reserves would theoretically allow Japan, which portrays itself as a staunch supporter of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, to produce as many as 5,000 – 6,000 nuclear bombs.

https://www.rt.com/news/431665-japan-plutonium-korea-denuclearization/

China's top officials, Vice Premier Liu He and top diplomat State Councillor Wang Yi have carried out a series of meetings in Brussels, Berlin as well as in Beijing, touting an alliance between the two economic powerhouses.

One of the proposals floated by the Chinese envisaged China and the EU joining forces at the World Trade Organization against the US, which might also see them initiating a joint action against Washington at the WTO, the agency reported.

Given that the relations between the US and its European allies, which were strained after Trump slapped the EU with import tariffs on steel and aluminum, remain in a rough place, the timing of the Chinese proposal seems sensible.

"Trump has split the West, and China is seeking to capitalize on that. It was never comfortable with the West being one bloc," a European diplomat engaged in the Sino-EU diplomacy told Reuters, while another one called the Trump's demarche at the G7 summit in Canada a gift to China.

However, five diplomats that spoke to the agency on the issue have said that, despite all grievances that the EU holds against Washington, the EU leaders turned down the proposal.

"China wants the European Union to stand with Beijing against Washington, to take sides," one diplomat said, as cited by the agency, adding that the EU made it clear to Beijing it won't accept the tradeoff.

https://www.rt.com/news/431667-china-eu-trade-war-us-ally/

The US defense manufacturers as well as the British companies are, meanwhile, expected to be locked out of both the EDF and the EDIDP. The firms “will have to be based in the European Union, have their infrastructure in the European Union and above all, [their] decision-making cannot be controlled by an entity based outside the European Union,” if they want to qualify for EDF money, an EU official told AFP in mid-June.

https://www.rt.com/news/431644-eu-defense-industry-fund/