President Donald Trump said Sunday that Russia and China have secretly carried out underground nuclear tests and declared that the United States will resume its own testing to maintain strategic parity.
“Russia’s testing, and China’s testing—but they don’t talk about it,” Trump told CBS’s 60 Minutes. “I don’t want to be the only country that doesn’t test.”
Trump also named North Korea and Pakistan among nations allegedly testing their arsenals, adding that foreign powers often conduct tests “way underground where people don’t know exactly what’s happening.”
The president’s remarks came days after Russia said it had tested a new nuclear-powered cruise missile and a nuclear-capable underwater drone. Trump first announced his plan for renewed U.S. testing on Thursday, moments before meeting Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea.
Asked if the United States would detonate a nuclear weapon for the first time since 1992, Trump said, “We’re going to test nuclear weapons like other countries do, yes.”
China’s foreign ministry on Monday denied the claim, saying Beijing “has always… upheld a self-defence nuclear strategy and abided by its commitment to suspend nuclear testing.”
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright downplayed the prospect of an immediate detonation, saying current plans involve “non-critical explosions” to test delivery systems and weapon components.
The United States signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty in 1996, which prohibits all atomic test explosions, though it has not conducted a live nuclear test in more than three decades.
