Donald Trump Claims Pakistan Testing Nukes Secretly- Should India Be Worried?

US President Donald Trump has made a startling claim that Pakistan is among several countries actively testing nuclear weapons, grouping it with Russia, China, and North Korea. His remarks came during a news interview amid reports of the US considering a resumption of its own nuclear testing program.

‘Pakistan’s Been Testing,’ Says Trump

Defending his stance on restarting US nuclear tests, Trump stated that the move was “appropriate,” given that multiple nations were already conducting such activities.

“Russia’s testing and China’s testing, but they don’t talk about it. We’re an open society. We talk about it because otherwise you people are going to report. They don’t have reporters that are going to be writing about it,” Trump told media.

The President added, “We’re going to test because they test and others test. And certainly North Korea’s been testing. Pakistan’s been testing.”

Furthermore, Trump claimed the US does not “necessarily know” where these nations are conducting the tests, but insisted that underground testing activity was taking place.

“They test way underground where people don’t know exactly what’s happening with the test. You feel a little bit of a vibration. They test and we don’t test. We have to test,” he said.

Trump’s comments came in response to a question about his decision to resume nuclear detonations after more than 3 decades, following Russia’s reported trials of advanced nuclear systems, including a Poseidon underwater drone.

Moreover he stated, “You have to see how they work. The reason I’m saying testing is because Russia announced that they were going to be doing a test. If you notice, North Korea is testing constantly. Other countries are testing. We’re the only country that doesn’t test. And I don’t want to be the only country that doesn’t test.”

He went on to assert that the US holds the world’s largest nuclear arsenal and has previously discussed Denuclearization with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“We have enough nuclear weapons to blow up the world 150 times,” Trump stated. “Russia has a lot of nuclear weapons, and China will have a lot. They have some. They have quite a bit.”

What US Clarifies?

Following Trump’s remarks, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright clarified that the upcoming nuclear tests would not involve live detonations.

“I think the tests we’re talking about right now are system tests. These are not nuclear explosions. These are what we call non-critical explosions,” Wright said in an interview.

He explained that the tests would assess “all the other parts of a nuclear weapon” to ensure proper design and performance, adding that the focus was on validating new systems to make replacement weapons safer and more efficient.

Wright stated, “The planned testing involves all the other parts of a nuclear weapon to make sure they deliver the appropriate geometry and they set up the nuclear explosion.”

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