New Delhi: US President Donald Trump said Sunday Pakistan, China and Russia were secretly testing nuclear weapons and announced he has ordered America to resume its own nuclear testing programme, breaking with more than three decades of policy.
In an interview with CBS, Trump justified his decision to restart testing and said Russia, China and Pakistan have been conducting underground detonations, which only cause slight vibrations and aren’t felt easily. “We’re going to test because they test (China and Russia) — and others test,” Trump told interviewer Norah O’Donnell, adding: “Certainly North Korea’s been testing. Pakistan’s been testing.”
When O’Donnell noted that Pakistan, along with others, has not tested nuclear weapons in decades, Trump pushed back. “They don’t go and tell you about it. As powerful as they are, this is a big world. You don’t necessarily know where they’re testing. They test way underground, where people don’t know exactly what’s happening. You feel a little bit of a vibration.”
There was no immediate reaction from Islamabad on the US President’s remarks till Monday morning.
Announcement on Truth Social
Before meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea last week, Trump announced on his social media platform, Truth Social, that he had instructed the Pentagon to begin nuclear weapons testing “immediately”, saying the move was necessary because “other countries seem to all be nuclear testing”.
Speaking aboard Air Force One later, the US President said, “We have more nuclear weapons than anybody. We don’t do testing. I see them testing and I say, well, if they’re going to test, I guess we have to test.”
He continued, “They test, and we don’t test. We have to test. Russia made a little bit of a threat the other day when they said they were going to do a different level of testing. But Russia tests, China tests—and we’re going to test also.”
Following his announcement, Russia warned that it would “act accordingly” if any country breaks the moratorium on nuclear testing. China urged the United States to uphold its commitments to non-proliferation.
‘Can blow up world 150 times’
In the CBS interview, Trump asserted that the US has “enough nuclear weapons to blow up the world 150 times”.
“Russia has a lot of nuclear weapons, and China will have a lot. They have some — they have quite a bit,” he said.
“The reason I’m saying testing is because Russia announced that they were going to be doing a test. If you notice, North Korea is constantly testing. Other countries are testing. We’re the only country that doesn’t test. And I don’t want to be the only country that doesn’t test,” he said.
When pressed on whether he was confirming the US would resume detonating nuclear weapons after more than 30 years, he replied, “I’m saying that we’re going to test nuclear weapons like other countries do. Yes.”
The US has not conducted a live nuclear test since 1992, relying instead on computer simulations and subcritical experiments to ensure the reliability of its arsenal. While Washington never ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, it has largely observed its terms, and presidents of either of the two American parties have treated live testing as a line not to be crossed.
Trump, however, offered no evidence for his assertion and did not specify where or when he intended the US to test nuclear weapons.
He said in the interview that as President, he had directed what he called the “Department of War” to begin testing “immediately”.
“We have to test. You make nuclear weapons and then you don’t test — how are you going to know if they work,” he questioned.
During his first term, Trump withdrew from several key international agreements, including the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia in 2019 and the Iran nuclear deal. His new comments suggest a reassertion of what he described as America’s “absolute dominance” in nuclear capability.
“We have the best. I was the one that renovated them and built them during a four-year period. I hated to do it because the destructive capability is something you don’t even want to talk about. But if other people are going to have them, we have to have them — and if we have them, we have to test them,” he told O’Donnell.
Before Trump’s remarks, Russia announced it had successfully tested its nuclear-powered Burevestnik cruise missile, a weapon Moscow says can pierce any defence shield. The test was carried out alongside a nuclear drill last month, at a time when Trump has taken a tougher stance against Russia to push for a ceasefire in the Ukraine war.
No detonations, energy secretary clarifies
US secretary of energy Chris Wright later on Sunday said the nuclear weapons testing ordered by Donald Trump will not involve any explosive detonations.
Appearing on Fox News, he clarified that the planned activities would be “system tests” and not nuclear explosions.
“I think the tests we’re talking about right now are system tests. These are not nuclear explosions,” he said.
He added that the testing would focus on developing “more sophisticated systems, so that our replacement nuclear weapons are even better than the ones they were before”.
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