President Donald Trump has called on US military leaders to resume testing nuclear weapons in order to keep pace with other countries such as Russia and China.
“Because of other countries’ testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our nuclear weapons on an equal basis,” he wrote on social media just before meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea.
The US has more nuclear weapons than any other country, Trump said, with Russia second and China a “distant third”. It has not conducted nuclear testing since 1992.
It comes just days after Trump denounced Russia for testing a nuclear-powered missile. The Kremlin says its tests were “not nuclear”.
Later, on Air Force One, after the two leaders’ meeting, Trump said the nuclear test sites would be determined later.
“With others doing testing, I think it’s appropriate that we do also,” Trump said on his way back to Washington.
No country except North Korea has conducted a nuclear test explosion in this century, according to the Arms Control Association (ACA) – and even Pyongyang announced a moratorium in 2018.
Trump’s announcement did not make it clear whether he was referring to testing a nuclear explosion or simply a weapon system that would be capable of delivering a nuclear weapon.
His post on Wednesday night acknowledged the “tremendous destructive power” of nuclear weapons, but said he had “no choice” but to update and renovate the US arsenal during his first term in office.
He also said that China’s nuclear programme “will be even within 5 years”.
The announcement marks an apparent reversal of a long-standing US policy. The last US nuclear weapons test was in 1992, before former Republican President George Bush issued a moratorium as the Cold War ended.
Russia announced over the weekend that it had successfully tested two new weapons capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
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These included a missile which the Kremlin said could penetrate US defence systems, and an underwater drone called Poseidon, capable of hitting the American west coast and triggering radioactive ocean swells.
But those tests did not involve the detonation of nuclear weapons.
On Thursday, Russia denied it had carried out nuclear tests.
“Regarding the tests of Poseidon and Burevestnik, we hope that the information was conveyed correctly to President Trump,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.
“This cannot in any way be interpreted as a nuclear test.”
The Kremlin said the United States had not notified Russia of its intention to conduct nuclear weapons testing.
“The US is a sovereign country that has the right to make its sovereign decisions. But I want to recall President Putin’s statement, which has been repeated many times: if someone departs from the moratorium, Russia will act accordingly,” the spokesman said.
China has also responded to Trump’s announcement, saying it hoped the US would earnestly fulfil its obligations under the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) and honour its commitment to suspend nuclear testing.
