A senior state department official said that the US would resume nuclear tests to match “opaque” Chinese activity, flagging new details about a 2020 test the US recently accused China of secretly conducting, as US President Donald Trump seeks a new trilateral nuclear control deal with China and Russia.
“As the president has said, the United States will return to testing on an ‘equal basis’,” Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Arms Control and Nonproliferation Christopher Yeaw said on Tuesday at an event hosted by the Washington-based think tank Hudson Institute.
“But equal basis doesn’t mean we’re going back to Ivy Mike-style atmospheric testing in the multi-megaton range,” Yeaw added, referring to the first thermonuclear bomb the US detonated in 1952. “Equal basis, however, presumes a response to a prior standard. Look no further than China or Russia for that standard.”
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Yeaw’s remarks came amid a nuclear control vacuum the world recently found itself in after the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start), the world’s last binding nuclear arms control agreement, expired on February 5. Trump has refused Moscow’s offer to extend the treaty for another year as he argued for a “better agreement” that includes China.
A day after Trump floated his idea for an “improved” three-way deal, US Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Thomas DiNanno said at a conference in Geneva that China had failed to disclose a 2020 nuclear test.
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Trump orders US military to resume nuclear weapons tests for first time in 33 years
Trump orders US military to resume nuclear weapons tests for first time in 33 years
