Says trials deep underground to evade detection
US President Donald Trump has claimed that Pakistan has been secretly “testing nuclear weapons”, alongside Russia, China and North Korea, the comments coming as Washington itself considers resuming nuclear testing after more than three decades.
In an interview to an American news channel, Trump said several countries were covertly conducting nuclear tests while the US had “stopped testing”, calling the situation “unacceptable” and confirming that he had directed the Pentagon to prepare for possible nuclear tests.
“Russia’s testing and China’s testing, but they don’t talk about it. We are an open society. We talk about it because otherwise you people are going to report. They don’t have reporters writing about it,” Trump said, naming Pakistan among the nations allegedly testing weapons way underground where people don’t know exactly what’s happening.
“They test, and we don’t test. We have to test…. Certainly, North Korea has been testing. Pakistan has been testing. But they don’t go and tell you about it,” he said.
Trump’s comments are expected to cause ripples in diplomatic and security circles, particularly as Pakistan’s nuclear activity has long been under international scrutiny. Islamabad has not officially conducted a nuclear test since May 1998, when it carried out six detonations in response to India’s Pokhran-II tests.
As of Monday evening, India had not issued any official response to Trump’s claims.
Reacting sharply to Trump’s broader assertions, China dismissed the allegations, saying it had been adhering to a nuclear testing moratorium and a “no first use” policy. “We stand ready to work with all parties to uphold the authority of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty and safeguard the international nuclear disarmament regime,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said in Beijing.
“It’s hoped that the US will earnestly abide by its obligations and commitment to a moratorium on nuclear testing and take concrete actions to uphold global strategic stability,” she added. Trump, who was further pressed by the interviewer on why the US should resume testing when it already possessed the world’s largest nuclear arsenal, said, “Well, because you have to see how they work… You make nuclear weapons and then you don’t test? How are you going to know if they work?”
The US President insisted that nuclear testing was essential for maintaining deterrence and claimed he had discussed “denuclearisation” with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Strategic analysts say the US President’s claim, particularly about Pakistan, could prompt calls for clarification from the State Department and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), given the absence of verifiable evidence of any recent Pakistani nuclear tests.
If confirmed, Trump’s push to restart US nuclear testing would mark a major shift in American nuclear posture and could set off a new global arms race, undermining decades of disarmament efforts and reigniting tensions among nuclear-armed powers.
Meanwhile, the US President, in the same interview, yet again reiterated his claim of stopping the war between India and Pakistan through trade and tariff pressure. “India was going to have a nuclear war with Pakistan…. If Donald Trump didn’t get involved, many millions of people would have been dead. It was a bad war. Planes were shot down all over the place. I told both of them [India & Pakistan PMs], if you guys don’t stop you will not do any business with the US,” Trump said.
