United States President Donald Trump has claimed that Pakistan conducted nuclear weapons tests, a revelation that comes shortly after he announced that the U.S. would begin testing its own nuclear weapons — for the first time in more than three decades.
Trump stated that Pakistan is among the countries that have been actively testing nuclear weapons, citing it as part of a broader pattern among other states that necessitates the US resuming its own nuclear tests.
According to ANI, in an interview with CBS News’s 60 Minutes on Sunday, Trump stated that several countries, including Russia, China, North Korea, and Pakistan, are conducting nuclear tests, while the US remains the only nation that does not.
“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. 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,” Trump said.
“We’re going to test because they test and others test. And certainly North Korea’s been testing. Pakistan’s been testing,” the US President added.
Trump made these remarks when he was asked about his decision to “detonate nuclear weapons”.
Trump’s Nuclear Weapon Testing Decision
Earlier on Thursday, Trump announced the immediate resumption of nuclear weapons testing, citing Russia’s recent trials of advanced nuclear-capable systems, in what marks a major escalation between the two nuclear powers.
“You have to see how they work. The reason I’m saying testing is that Russia announced that they were going to be doing a test. If you notice, North Korea is testing constantly. Other countries are testing. We’re the only country that doesn’t test. And I don’t want to be the only country that doesn’t test,” Trump stated in the interview.
“We’re going to test nuclear weapons like other countries do,” he added.
Trump’s Nuclear Weapons Remark
US President Trump has also claimed that America possesses “more nuclear weapons than any other country,” adding that he had discussed denuclearisation with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“We have enough nuclear weapons to blow up the world 150 times,” Trump said. “Russia has a lot of nuclear weapons and China will have a lot. They have some. They have quite a bit.”
When asked whether renewed testing could make the global nuclear landscape more volatile, he responded, “I think we have it pretty well locked up.”
