US President Donald Trump has announced the immediate start of new nuclear weapons tests. He justified this in a post on the Truth Social platform with the test programs of other countries. He instructed the Defense Ministry, recently renamed the War Ministry, to carry out tests “on the same basis.” What type of tests were to be carried out and which weapons were to be tested initially remained unclear.
The US president’s announcement came just before a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea. The USA and China, along with Russia, are established nuclear powers, as are Great Britain and France. On his flight back to Washington, when asked by a journalist what prompted him to make his announcement right before the meeting, Trump said that it had to do with “others” – but he did not name any countries.
Russia threatens to test nuclear weapons in response to US
However, the nuclear power Russia felt addressed, as it had recently repeatedly reported successful tests of its weapons – but without nuclear warheads. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov made it clear that these were not nuclear tests. Moscow hopes that Trump was correctly informed about this, he said. At the same time, Peskov recalled earlier warnings from Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin that Russia would also resume testing if the USA did so.
Trump’s statements are also seen in Russia as an opportunity for both nuclear powers to now primarily talk about disarmament treaties and less about Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine. Trump also said he would like to see denuclearization. He said they were talking to Russia about it, without giving any further details. China would – if something was done – be involved.
The USA last tested a nuclear weapon in 1992. Together with Russia and China, they have so far adhered to a decades-long moratorium on underground nuclear explosions. If the USA actually carries out nuclear weapons tests again for the first time in more than 30 years, other nuclear powers could also dare to take cover.
According to Congress, the United States conducted more than 1,000 nuclear tests between 1945 and 1992. Since 1998, no country other than North Korea has conducted nuclear tests. North Korea carried out its last tests between 2006 and 2017. See what the current status is in our maps and graphics:
Nuclear weapons have only been used once in war
At the end of the Second World War, the USA dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945. A second US bomb hit Nagasaki three days later. They were the first – and so far only – nuclear weapons attacks in the history of war.
