WASHINGTON (Nov 4): US President Donald Trump has claimed that Pakistan is among several countries actively testing nuclear weapons, defending his administration’s decision to resume America’s own nuclear testing after a pause of more than three decades.
In an interview with CBS News’ 60 Minutes on Sunday, Trump said that while the United States had refrained from testing, other nations — including Russia, China, North Korea, and Pakistan — had continued to do so.
“Russia’s testing and China’s testing, but they don’t talk about it. We’re an open society. We talk about it because otherwise, you people are going to report,” Trump said. “They don’t have reporters that are going to be writing about it. We’re going to test because they test, and others test. And certainly, North Korea’s been testing. Pakistan’s been testing.”
Trump’s remarks come amid growing global concern over renewed nuclear competition, with Washington’s recent move to reauthorize subcritical and low-yield nuclear experiments sparking criticism from non-proliferation advocates.
When asked why he believed resuming nuclear detonations was necessary, Trump said such tests were vital for ensuring the “reliability and credibility” of America’s nuclear arsenal, particularly in light of Russia’s new-generation strategic systems.
“You have to see how they work… We’re the only country that doesn’t test,” he said.
The United States last conducted a full-scale nuclear test in 1992, before signing the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) in 1996 — a treaty it has never ratified. Pakistan, like the US and China, has also signed but not ratified the CTBT, and has not publicly conducted any nuclear test since 1998.
Trump’s latest comments are expected to draw sharp international reaction, particularly from countries that see any US testing resumption as a threat to the global non-proliferation regime.