Donald Trump’s hoped-for backtrack on nuclear tests has not arrived. The American president today reiterated his intention to test the American nuclear arsenal, without however clarifying how. «We will do tests, yes, and other countries do it. If they do it, we will do it,” he said, responding to reporters on Air Force One. Pressed with questions about whether he meant exercises with or without nuclear explosions, Trump remained unbalanced: “You’ll see.”
No atomic power other than North Korea has conducted explosive nuclear weapons tests for decades. Russia and China have not tested since the 1990s, and the last one in the United States was in 1992.
And Moscow does not intend to take them back, he made clear, unless Washington does. “Nuclear weapons are tested regularly, but mathematical and not physical models are used,” clarified the secretary of the Russian Security Council Serghei Shoigu.
Iran’s position is tough and has been in conflict with the United States for years over its controversial nuclear projects. «A nuclear-armed bully is resuming atomic weapons testing. The same bully demonized Iran’s peaceful nuclear program,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi attacked on social media.
The Japanese atomic bomb survivor group Nihon Hidankyo sent a letter of protest to the US embassy in Japan. Trump’s order “directly contradicts the efforts of nations around the world striving for a peaceful world without nuclear weapons and is absolutely unacceptable,” the Nobel Peace Prize-winning group recalled.