US President Donald Trump appeared on Sunday's (November 2nd) 60 Minutes program.60 MinutesThe program accused Russia, China, Pakistan, and other countries of secretly conducting underground nuclear tests. China denied Trump's claims the following day (March 3).
On October 31, Trump gave an interview to CBS's "60 Minutes." During the interview, Trump claimed that "Russia is testing, China is testing, but they don't say anything." He added that North Korea and Pakistan are also believed to be testing their arms arsenals.
｜Extended reading｜Trump's 60 Minutes interview revealed that China and Russia are both secretly conducting underground nuclear tests.
Trump also said he did not want the United States to be the only country that had not conducted nuclear tests. These remarks have raised suspicions that Trump's announcement last week to resume the 33-year moratorium on nuclear weapons testing was intended to counter other nuclear-armed states such as China and Russia.
In response to the accusations, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning stated on the 3rd, "China has always adhered to the path of peaceful development, pursued a policy of no first use of nuclear weapons, upheld a self-defense nuclear strategy, and abided by its commitment to suspend nuclear testing." China is the first country to publicly deny conducting nuclear tests after Trump's remarks.
An unnamed senior Pakistani national security official later told CBS, "Pakistan was not the first country to conduct nuclear tests, nor will it be the first to resume them." It is understood that Pakistan last conducted a nuclear test in 1998. Since then, although not a signatory to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), Pakistan has adhered to its unilateral nuclear test moratorium.
