US President Donald Trump made a massive claim during an interview as he named Pakistan and China among the countries actively testing nuclear weapons, justifying the United States resuming its own nuclear tests.
In a candid interview with CBS News’s “60 Minutes” on Sunday, Trump pointed to several countries, including Russia, China, North Korea, and Pakistan, which he said were carrying out nuclear tests, while the United States has not done so in decades.
“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 because otherwise you people are going to report. They don’t have reporters that are going to be writing about it,” he said.
The President added, “We’re going to test because they test and others test. And certainly North Korea’s been testing. Pakistan’s been testing.”
US Plans To Resume Nuclear Testing After Three Decades
Trump made these remarks when asked about his decision to resume nuclear weapons testing for the first time in more than 30 years, following reports of Russia’s recent trials of advanced nuclear-capable systems, including the Poseidon underwater drone.
“You have to see how they work. The reason I’m saying testing is because 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 said.
“We’re going to test nuclear weapons like other countries do,” he added.
‘US Has More Nuclear Weapons Than Any Other Nation’
During the interview, Trump also claimed that the United States possesses “more nuclear weapons than any other country” and revealed that he had discussed disarmament efforts 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.”
The US President again claimed that both India and Pakistan were on the verge of a nuclear war in May, which he said he managed to stop with trade and tariffs.
“India was going to have a nuclear war with Pakistan. The Prime Minister of Pakistan stood up… If Donald Trump didn’t get involved, many millions of people would have been dead. It was a bad war. Aeroplanes were shot down all over the place. I told both of them, if you guys don’t stop you will not do any business with the US,” Trump said in the CBS interview.
Escalation Amid Global Tensions
Trump’s announcement on Thursday about the “immediate resumption” of American nuclear testing marks a major escalation in the long-standing nuclear standoff with Russia.
Before departing for an engagement aboard Air Force One, Trump told reporters that while denuclearisation would be a “tremendous thing,” restarting nuclear tests was “appropriate” under the current circumstances.
“They seem to all be nuclear testing,” he said, referring to Russia and China. “We have more nuclear weapons than anybody. We don’t do testing… but with others doing testing, I think it’s appropriate that we do also.”
He confirmed that preparations for testing were already underway but declined to provide details about the timing or location.
When asked if renewed testing could make the global nuclear situation more volatile, he responded, “I think we have it pretty well locked up.”
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law terminating the already defunct plutonium disposal agreement with the US. The 2000 pact required both nations to dispose of 34 tonnes of weapons-grade plutonium meant to curb the production of new nuclear arms. Its termination further underscores the growing strain between the two nuclear powers.
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