US President Donald Trump ordered the US military on Thursday to immediately resume testing nuclear weapons, for the first time in 33 years, minutes before beginning a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
While travelling by Marine One chopper to visit Xi for a trade negotiation session in Busan, South Korea, US president Donald Trump made the unexpected revelation on Truth Social. He said that he was giving the Pentagon instructions to test the US nuclear arsenal “equally” with other nuclear-armed nations.
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“Because of other countries’ testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis. That process will begin immediately,” Trump posted.
“Russia is second, and China is a distant third, but will be even within 5 years.”
Following his first comments to Xi, he did not provide further details or respond to a reporter’s shouted inquiry regarding his post. It was unclear at first whether Trump was talking about flight testing of nuclear-capable missiles or nuclear-explosive testing, which would be conducted by the National Nuclear Safety Administration.
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Later, US president Donald Trump told reporters on Air Force One that the US should start testing nuclear weapons again in order to stay competitive with other nuclear-armed nations. Additionally, he informed reporters that the locations of nuclear tests would be decided upon later.
Negative reactions to US president Donald Trump’s post
The reaction to Us President Donald Trump’s announcement on testing was swift. Representative Dina Titus, a Democrat from Nevada, said on X: “I’ll be introducing legislation to put a stop to this.”
The director of the Arms Control Association, Daryl Kimball, stated that it would take the US at least 36 months to start conducting controlled nuclear testing underground at the former Nevada test site.
“Trump is misinformed and out of touch. The US has no technical, military, or political reason to resume nuclear explosive testing for the first time since 1992,” Kimball said on X.
Kimball said Trump’s announcement could “trigger a chain reaction of nuclear testing by US adversaries, and blow apart the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.”
In addition to offering technical information, a US test would be interpreted in China and Russia as a purposeful demonstration of US strategic dominance. Putin has stated time and time again that if the US tests, Russia will.
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Trump said in August that he had spoken with Putin on nuclear armaments control and that he wanted China to participate. In response, Beijing stated that since its arsenal was significantly smaller, it was “unreasonable and unrealistic” to require the nation to participate in nuclear disarmament talks with the two nations.
In February, Trump first announced his plans to pursue nuclear arms limitation initiatives, stating that he wanted to start talks with both Putin and Xi about limiting their arsenals.
The latest nuclear weapon test conducted by the US was in 1992.
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