US Prez Trump says Russia, China, Pak among nations testing nuclear weapons

Washington: US President Donald Trump has revealed that Pakistan is among the countries that are testing nuclear weapons. He stated that the US like other nations will test nuclear weapons and stressed that the move was necessary as several nations, including Russia, China, North Korea, and Pakistan, are carrying out nuclear tests.

“Russia’s testing, and China’s testing, but they don’t talk about it. You know, we’re a open society. We’re different. We talk about it. We have to talk about it, because otherwise you people are gonna report — they don’t have reporters that are gonna be writing about it. We do. No, we’re gonna test, because they test and others test. And certainly North Korea’s been testing. Pakistan’s been testing,” NDTV quoted President Trump as saying during the interview with CBS News.

President Donald Trump made the remarks when asked whether the US is going to start detonating nuclear weapons for testing after more than 30 years. He said that the US does not “necessarily know” where these nations are testing nuclear weapons, however, he stated that testing is being done.

“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. They test and we don’t test. We have to test,” NDTV quoted Trump as saying during the interview with CBS News.

Trump claimed that US has more nuclear weapons than any other country, adding that he had discussed denuclearisation with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping. He said, “We have enough nuclear weapons to blow up the world 150 times. Russia has a lot of nuclear weapons, and China will have a lot. They have some. They have quite a bit.” He stated that they need to test nuclear weapons to know how they work.

He said, “You have to see how they work. You know, you do have to and the reason I’m saying testing is because Russia announced that they were gonna be doing a test. If you notice, North Korea’s testing constantly. Other countries are testing. We’re the only country that doesn’t test, and I wanna be– I don’t wanna be the only country that doesn’t test.”

Last week, Trump announced that the US will start testing nuclear weapons “immediately” in a break from 33 years of the country’s self-restraint.

Hours before his meeting with Xi Jinping in South Korea on Thursday, he said in a cryptic post on Truth Social, “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”, he added.

Trump said that the US had more nuclear weapons than any other country and this was due to “a complete update and renovation of existing weapons”, during his first term.

That was accomplished without any nuclear tests, which scientists say are not necessary anymore because computer simulations can do the job.

Trump wrote that he had “no choice” but to expand the nuclear arsenal although he hated it, because “Russia is second, and China is a distant third, but will be even within 5 years”.

Elements in his post were unclear. For example, he said he was ordering the nuclear tests “because of other countries’ testing programmes”.

Only North Korea, across from where he made the post, has carried out a nuclear test in recent years, and that was in 2017.

There have been no other tests since 1998, when India and Pakistan set off test blasts.

IANS