Former US President Donald Trump claimed on Sunday that countries including Russia and China have secretly conducted underground nuclear tests, and that the United States would do the same.
“Russia’s testing, and China’s testing, but they don’t talk about it,” Trump said in an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes, released Sunday. “I don’t want to be the only country that doesn’t test,” he added, naming North Korea and Pakistan among nations allegedly carrying out such activities.
Trump’s comments have stirred confusion over whether he intends to authorize the first US nuclear detonation since 1992. The 79-year-old Republican first hinted at renewed testing in a social media post Thursday, moments before a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea.
His remarks followed Russia’s announcement that it had tested a new nuclear-powered cruise missile, the Burevestnik, along with a nuclear-capable underwater drone.
Asked directly if the United States planned to detonate a nuclear weapon for the first time in more than three decades, Trump replied: “I’m saying that we’re going to test nuclear weapons like other countries do, yes.”
No country other than North Korea is known to have conducted an actual nuclear explosion in recent decades; Russia and China last carried out such tests in 1990 and 1996 respectively.
Pressed on his claims, Trump said: “They don’t go and tell you about it. 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.”
Responding Monday, China’s foreign ministry denied the allegations.
“As a responsible nuclear-weapon state, China has always upheld a self-defence nuclear strategy and honoured its commitment to suspend nuclear testing,” spokeswoman Mao Ning said in Beijing. She urged the United States to “take concrete actions to safeguard the global non-proliferation regime and maintain strategic stability.”
Meanwhile, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright sought to clarify Trump’s comments, saying Washington had no plans for a live nuclear explosion.
“The tests we’re talking about are system tests, not nuclear detonations,” Wright told Fox News. “They’re what we call ‘non-critical’ tests, assessing other components to ensure they perform correctly.”
The United States signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty in 1996, which prohibits all nuclear test explosions, though it has not yet been ratified by the US Senate.
AFP
