“Trump’s comments may be more about seeking leverage in negotiations with China, Russia and other world powers than a firm policy shift,” the FT said. The newspaper also noted that during his second term as president, he emphasized “the importance of denuclearization negotiations with both China and Russia.” But while those comments “sparked frenzied speculation” around the world, the White House has so far done “little to dispel uncertainty about the administration’s intentions and the basis for the move,” the paper added, according to Russia’s TASS news agency.
“If President Trump succeeds in this, it will open the door to a chain reaction of nuclear tests the likes of which we have not seen in a quarter of a century,” the FT quoted Darryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, as saying. He called the president’s stance “incoherent, ill-informed and counterproductive.”
“It is inconceivable that the president’s words mean a nuclear test,” Lt. Gen. Richard Correll, a candidate to head the U.S. Strategic Command, said at a U.S. Senate hearing on Thursday, according to the FT. “Neither China nor Russia has conducted a nuclear explosion test, so I’m not reading too much into it or reading anything into it,” Correll said.
Rose Gottemoeller, a former NATO deputy secretary-general and US arms control negotiator, believes President Trump was “excited” by reports of the completion of a test of the Burevestnik unlimited-range cruise missile. She also suggested that the president might step up small-scale experiments with nuclear material in special containers instead of large-scale underground explosions.
On October 29, the President of the United States announced that he had directed the Department of Defense to immediately resume nuclear weapons testing. He did not say what type of test he was referring to or whether it involved the detonation of a nuclear warhead.
Master’s degree/PR