Washington — President Trump directed the Pentagon on Wednesday to resume testing of nuclear weapons “on an equal basis” with other countries’ tests, possibly ending a decades-long U.S. pause that stretches back to the end of the Cold War.
The announcement came moments before Mr. Trump walked into a high-stakes meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea.
“Because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis,” the president wrote on Truth Social, using his administration’s preferred term for the Defense Department. “That process will begin immediately.”
It’s not clear when or if the military will carry out a test, or what the president meant by restarting tests “on an equal basis.”
The U.S. conducted its last nuclear weapons test in Nevada in 1992. President George H.W. Bush then imposed a moratorium on testing in the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union, according to the National Nuclear Security Administration.
China has not tested a nuclear weapon since 1996, and Russia — or the then-Soviet Union — hasn’t carried out such a test since 1990, though Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday his country had tested a new nuclear-powered drone, which came shortly after a test of a new nuclear-capable and powered cruise missile.
But China has rapidly expanded its nuclear arsenal in recent years, a trend that the Pentagon expects to continue for the rest of the decade.
Mr. Trump’s meeting with Xi is expected to primarily focus on trade and tariffs, but security concerns still lurk in the U.S.-China relationship.
The U.S. military is discussing a missile launch this week in a “show of force” against recent Chinese aggression in the South China Sea, CBS News reported earlier Thursday. And some Trump allies have encouraged the U.S. president to recognize Taiwanese independence, a move that Beijing has long viewed as unacceptable.
Meanwhile, Mr. Trump has used his dayslong Asia trip to boost relations with U.S. allies in the region like Japan and South Korea, two rivals of China. Earlier Wednesday, he said he will allow South Korea to build a nuclear-powered submarine.
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