Donald Trump defended his decision to lift the 33-year moratorium on testing of nuclear weapons by US, saying that countries like Russia, China and even Pakistan have been actively conducting tests.
"Russia's testing and China's testing them too, but they don't talk about it. We're an open society. We're different. We talk about it. We have to 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 said in a recent interview to CBS News.
"We're going to test because they test and others test. And certainly North Korea's been testing. Pakistan's been testing," he added, opposing the interview's remark that only North Korea is actively testing nuclear weapons.
"They don't go and tell you about ... 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, doubling down on his claims.
Notably, while Trump most of the countries who currently possess nuclear arms, he did not specify India, which maintains a transparent non proliferation policy.
Pakistan’s pursuit of nuclear weapons began in the aftermath of its 1971 war with India, driven by a determination to counter India’s conventional military superiority.
Under then Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the country launched its nuclear programme in the mid-1970s, culminating in covert testing activities through the 1980s and 1990s with assistance from foreign networks.
Although Pakistan maintained ambiguity for years, it conducted its first public nuclear tests on May 28, 1998, in Chagai, Balochistan, shortly after India’s Pokhran-II tests, officially declaring itself a nuclear weapons state.
Western intelligence and independent experts believe that prior to those detonations, Pakistan had already achieved weapons-grade capability through secret enrichment and subcritical testing.
Also, the safety of Pakistan's nuclear weapons have come under question time and again due to its ambigious stance and the presence of terror groups in the country.
Earlier, Union minister Rajnath Singh had asked whether nuclear weapons are safe in an "irresponsible and rogue nation like Pakistan?"
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