Trump Claims Pakistan is Testing Nukes, Says US Must Consider Nuclear Tests

President Trump Justifies Potential US Nuclear Testing, Citing Pakistan's Actions

US President Donald Trump, while speaking to a TV channel,  highlighted that Pakistan is one of the few countries that have been actively testing nuclear weapons. His remarks came after the decision of the United States to resume testing of nuclear weapons came to the spotlight. 

Trump also claimed that Russia, North Korea, and China are a few other countries that are actively carrying out nuclear tests. 

Challenging Decades of US Nuclear Restraint

Donald Trump, while talking to CBS News, said, “Russia's testing and China's testing, but they don't talk about it. We're an open society. We're different. We talk about it.” Adding “We have to talk about it because otherwise you people are going to report. They don't have reporters that are going to be writing about it.”

He mentioned further that, “We’re going to test because they test and others test. And certainly North Korea’s been testing. Pakistan’s been testing.” Moreover, he went on to how these countries hide their tests from the world, saying, “They-- they test way under-- underground where people don't know exactly what's happening with the test. You feel a little bit of a vibration.”

Trump Administration's Take on Nuke Testing Plan

Chris Wright, the current US Energy Secretary, made it clear that the nuclear testing will not involve any explosions this time. This is the first statement from the Trump administration after Trump instructed the Department of War to carry out nuclear tests on an equal basis. 

Furthermore, Wright stated that “I think the tests we're talking about right now are system tests. These are not nuclear explosions. These are what we call non-critical explosions.” The Energy Secretary also added that new systems will be used for the upcoming tests just to ensure that the replaced nuclear weapons are better than the older ones.

Summing up, the decades-long global guidelines, which were strictly adopted against nuclear explosions, however imperfectly maintained, have been a critical restraint against a full-blown arms race. Linking US testing to other nations, especially Pakistan, gives powerful validation to proliferation.

Instead of resuming nuclear tests, the US, on the other hand, should pursue verified international denuclearization treaties and try to strengthen the global non-proliferation framework. A nuclear competition threatens all human life; escalating it is an act of geopolitical folly.