Trump justifies decision to restart testing of nuke weapons; says Pak, China doing it

Washington: Pakistan and China are among the countries which are testing nuclear weapons, US President Donald Trump has said to justify his administration's plans to resume testing of the US's own nuclear assets after a gap of over three decades.

Ahead of his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping last week, Trump announced that the US will start testing nuclear weapons on an "equal basis" with rival powers.

In an interview with CBS News' Norah O'Donnell on Sunday, the US president named Russia, China, North Korea and Pakistan as the countries testing nuclear weapons.

"Russia's testing, and China's testing, but they don't talk about it. You know, we're an open society. We're different. We talk about it.... We're gonna test, because they test and others test," Trump said.

"And certainly North Korea's been testing. Pakistan's been testing," he asserted.

Shortly before meeting Xi in South Korea on Thursday last, Trump said on social media that the US will resume testing nuclear weapons for the first time in three decades.

Trump claimed some of the countries conducting tests of their nuclear weapons don't acknowledge them.

"They don't go and tell you about it. You don't necessarily know where they're testing. They test way under -- underground, where people don't know exactly what's happening with the test," he said.

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia had tested a Poseidon nuclear-capable super torpedo.

In his remarks, Trump strongly justified his decision to restart the process for testing nuclear weapons, saying testing was necessary to ensure the reliability of the weapons.

"They (other countries) test, and we don't test. We have to test. And Russia did make -- a little bit of a threat the other day when they said they were gonna do certain forms of a different level of testing. But Russia tests, China -- and China does test, and we're gonna test also," the president said.

"You make nuclear weapons, and then you don't test. How are you gonna do that? How are you gonna know if they work?" he said.

According to US media reports, the US military regularly tests its missiles that are capable of delivering a nuclear warhead, but it has not detonated the weapons since 1992.

In the interview, Trump once again claimed credit for stopping the conflict between India and Pakistan in May as well as seven other conflicts.

"And in the meantime, I've solved eight wars. I knocked out eight wars. I had eight wars," he said.

Except the Russia-Ukraine war, which Trump said is the "only one I haven't been successful yet, and -- and that'll happen," he said.

He named the eight conflicts: Cambodia-Thailand, Kosovo-Serbia, Congo-Rwanda; Israel-Iran; Egypt-Ethiopia; Israel-Hamas; Armenia-Azerbaijan, and India-Pakistan.

The US president said he used tariffs to end certain conflicts.

"It did work with India, and it did work with Pakistan, and it did work with -- 60 per cent of those countries. I can tell you, if it wasn't for tariffs and trade, I wouldn't have been able to make the deals," Trump added.

"The prime minister of Pakistan stood up the other day and he said, 'If Donald Trump didn't get involved, many millions of people would be dead right now.' That was a bad war he was ready to start," the US president said.

India has consistently maintained that the understanding on cessation of hostilities with Pakistan was reached following direct talks between the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of the two militaries.