Meanwhile, the Russian president this Wednesday instructed the Government to present a report on the need to resume nuclear tests.
The competent bodies must make “every effort to collect additional information on this issue and present concerted proposals on the possible launch of preparatory work for nuclear tests”, said Vladimir Putin, at an extraordinary meeting of the Russian Security Council, broadcast on television.
Putin stressed that the Kremlin “has always scrupulously respected the obligations” under the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), which aims precisely to ban any nuclear explosion, but also recalled that, when he addressed the Federal Assembly in 2023, he guaranteed that “If the United States or any other state party to the treaty carries out such tests, Russia will also have to take appropriate measures in response.”.
Also at the meeting, Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belusov said he “considers it appropriate to immediately begin preparations for large-scale nuclear tests” as the US plans “considerably increase the level of military threat to Russia.”
“We must maintain our nuclear potential to be ready to inflict unacceptable damage on the enemy under all circumstances,” he added.
Belusov also warned that Washington is producing several types of nuclear-capable weapons that pose a direct threat to Moscow.
Trump’s announcement that he had ordered the start of US nuclear weapons testing came before a meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, and made direct reference to Russia and China, after Putin ordered a test of a nuclear-capable underwater drone.
“Due to the testing programs carried out by other countries, I have asked the War Department to begin testing our nuclear weapons on an equal footing. This process will begin immediately”, declared the US President, on the social network he owns, Truth Social.
“The United States has more nuclear weapons than any other country,” wrote the Republican.
“Given the tremendous destructive power, I HATE to do this, but I have no alternative! Russia is second and China is a very distant third, but they will be at the same level in five years,” Trump added.