U.S President Donald Trump has claimed that Russia and China have secretly conducted underground nuclear tests and said the United States would resume its own testing programme.
Speaking during an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes on Sunday, Trump alleged that several countries, including North Korea and Pakistan, have been testing nuclear weapons without public disclosure.
“Russia’s testing, and China’s testing, but they don’t talk about it,” Trump said. “I don’t want to be the only country that doesn’t test.”
His remarks have raised questions about whether the U.S. intends to conduct its first nuclear explosion since 1992.
The 79-year-old Republican made the surprise announcement via social media on Thursday, just minutes before meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping at a summit in South Korea.
The statement came shortly after Russia announced it had tested two new nuclear-capable systems, the Burevestnik cruise missile and an underwater nuclear drone.
When asked directly whether he planned to detonate a nuclear weapon, Trump responded:
“I’m saying that we’re going to test nuclear weapons like other countries do, yes.”
No country other than North Korea has officially conducted a nuclear explosion in decades, with Russia last testing in 1990 and China in 1996.
Pressed further, Trump suggested that other nations may be conducting secret tests:
“They test way underground where people don’t know exactly what’s happening. You feel a little bit of a vibration, but they don’t go and tell you about it.”
On Monday, China’s Foreign Ministry dismissed Trump’s claims, reaffirming Beijing’s adherence to its long-standing policy on nuclear restraint.
“As a responsible nuclear-weapons state, China has always upheld a self-defence nuclear strategy and honoured its commitment to suspend nuclear testing,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters in Beijing.
“We hope the United States will take concrete actions to safeguard global nuclear disarmament and maintain strategic stability.”
Meanwhile, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright downplayed suggestions that Washington was preparing to conduct an actual nuclear explosion.
“The tests we’re talking about are system tests, not nuclear explosions,” Wright explained in a Fox News interview.
“They are ‘non-critical explosions’ used to verify the components and performance of a nuclear device without triggering a detonation.”
The United States signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) in 1996, which prohibits all forms of atomic test explosions.
Although the treaty has not been ratified by the U.S Senate, the country has maintained a voluntary moratorium on testing for more than three decades.
