US President Donald Trump said he has ordered the Pentagon to begin nuclear weapons tests "on an equal footing" with Russia and China, suddenly inserting nuclear issues into the discussion just before his meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping during a major trade forum in Gyeongju, South Korea, the "Washington Post" reported, BTA.
The announcement marks a U-turn in decades of US nuclear policy that could have far-reaching consequences for relations with US adversaries, although Trump's publication in "Truth Social" did not contain many details about what the tests would involve. The last nuclear test in the United States was conducted in 1992, before President George H. W. Bush imposed a moratorium on such actions at the end of the Cold War.
Trump said he would order the Department of War to conduct the tests, but the Department of Energy is responsible for nuclear testing, the "Washington Post" notes.
It is not clear when or if the military will conduct a test, nor what the president meant by restarting testing "on an equal footing," CBS News points out.
Trump wrote in "Truth Social" that his decision was also in response to testing programs in other countries. "Washington Post" Recall that on Wednesday, Russia announced that it had successfully tested a nuclear-powered super torpedo called "Poseidon" and praised the successful test of a nuclear-powered cruise missile just three days earlier. The "Washington Post" notes, however, that Putin has so far refrained from testing a nuclear weapon or conducting a nuclear explosion.
The first Trump administration discussed conducting a nuclear test in 2020, and a senior administration official told the "Washington Post" at the time, demonstrating the US's ability to conduct a test would be a useful tool for negotiations with Beijing and Moscow, the newspaper recalled.
But such an escalation could undermine Trump's latest moves to establish himself as a "peace president" as he leads a global campaign for the Nobel Peace Prize and tries to calm tensions with the US's main geopolitical rival.
Trump's announced intentions for nuclear testing have raised concerns among arms control experts, who say it is unnecessary and escalates tensions.
"The United States has no technical, military or political reason to resume nuclear explosion tests," said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association.
Kimball added that the National Nuclear Security Administration, the federal agency that oversees the tests, is not prepared to resume testing immediately and that "it will take at least 36 months to resume underground nuclear testing at the former Nevada Test Site".
Since 1945, more than 2,000 nuclear explosions have been conducted around the world, but most countries stopped nuclear testing in the 1990s. The last nuclear explosion in China was in 1996, and in Moscow in 1990, in the last days of the Soviet Union. The rare exception is the latest nuclear test conducted by North Korea in 2017.
Many countries – including the United States, Russia and China – have signed the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, which prohibits "any nuclear-weapon explosions or other nuclear explosions".
However, the treaty never entered into force because several key countries, including the United States, did not ratify it.
Amidst his high-stakes diplomatic tour, President Trump threatened on social media that he would resume nuclear testing for the first time in 33 years, the "New York Times" reported. The newspaper notes that the threat was made just minutes before he was to meet with Xi Jinping, the president of China, whose country is carrying out one of the fastest nuclear arsenal expansions on the planet.
Although China is expanding its arsenal, the country has not tested a nuclear weapon since 1996, the newspaper recalls.
In his publication in "Truth Social" Trump pointed out that the United States has more nuclear weapons than any other country, which was the result of his actions during his first term as president. Russia was in second place, and China - in third. Experts immediately pointed out that this is not true: Russia currently has the most nuclear weapons, writes "Süddeutsche Zeitung".
The newspaper also notes that since Trump did not specify in his publication what kind of tests he had in mind and used the comparison "on an equal footing" with the two countries he was referring to - China and Russia - this should mean that no atomic bomb will be detonated: since the 1990s, no country except North Korea has tested nuclear weapons.
The last nuclear test by the United States, codenamed "Divider", was conducted on September 23, 1992, at what is now the Nevada National Security Site. Then-President George H. W. Bush declared a moratorium on underground nuclear tests that same year. However, the US still has the option to resume testing at the Nevada National Security Site, the Guardian points out.
The newspaper points out that despite repeated statements from both Moscow and Washington about their desire to stop the arms race, little progress has been made. The Kremlin has recently criticized Trump's drive to develop an anti-missile shield - known as "Golden Dome" - which it says would make the US invulnerable to attack. "The Guardian" also recalls that in December 2016, Trump wrote on Twitter: "The United States must significantly strengthen and expand its nuclear capabilities until the world comes to its senses about nuclear weapons.“