Trump says US to start testing nuclear weapons ‘on equal basis’ with Russia, China

US President Donald Trump says he has instructed thecountry’s war department to start testing nuclear weapons.Trump issued the directive moments before his highlyanticipated meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea onThursday. In a Truth Social post, Trump said, “The United States hasmore Nuclear Weapons than any other country”. He named Russia as second and China as “a distant third” butcatching up. “Because of other countries testing programs, I haveinstructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on anequal basis,” Trump said, adding that the process will begin immediately. Though the US president did not explicitly refer to Russiaand China as currently conducting nuclear weapon tests, the announcementsignals a potential new arms race with the two nations. The US and China have been involved in a prolonged tradedispute that many geopolitics experts say closely mirrors the cold war. Meanwhile, Russia’s protracted war in Ukraine has furtherstrained its already tense relations with Western nations. Last month, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO)intercepted three Russian warplanes violating Estonia’s airspace. It came a week after Poland and Romania, two NATO memberstates, reported similar incidents. The European Union (EU) called the violation an “extremelydangerous provocation”. Neither Russia nor China has conducted live nuclear testssince the 1990s. The US last conducted a nuclear test in 1992, when it begana voluntary moratorium on such explosive testing. Israel is believed to have nuclear weapons but has notpublicly tested them. Both the US and Israel have accused Iran of nuclear weaponsdevelopment and testing activities, but the Persian country has repeatedlydenied the claims. In June, the US bombed three nuclear sites in Iran as partof a military campaign to destroy Tehran’s nuclear enrichment facilities. North Korea is the only country to have publicly conductednuclear tests in recent times, with six public underground tests from 2006 to2017. Trump has publicly campaigned for the Nobel Peace Prize,portraying himself as a “peacemaker” while touting his ability to “end wars”. His latest remarks, however, stand in sharp contrast to thatimage and could potentially escalate global tensions.

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