"United States President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he had instructed the Department of Defense to immediately restart testing of US nuclear weapons. If the US resumes nuclear testing now, it would be the first time it has conducted such tests in more than 30 years."
"Trump claimed that China was rapidly building its nuclear stockpile, citing that as among the reasons to justify his decision, just before he began a much-anticipated summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping that yielded a deal on tariffs and rare earth metals."
"In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote: Because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis. The Trump administration has renamed the Department of Defense the Department of War. In the post, Trump said that while the US has more Nuclear Weapons than any other country, China will be even within 5 years."
"It's true that while the US and Russia have been slowly retiring some of their nuclear weapons, China has been expanding its stockpile up from 350 in 2022, according to the Federation of American Scientists, to 410 in 2023, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). But the US's count of nuclear weapons was still nine times that number 3,708 in 2023."
The Department of Defense has been instructed to immediately restart US nuclear weapons testing, which would be the first such tests in more than 30 years. The decision was justified by cited foreign testing and expanding nuclear stockpiles. The administration renamed the Department of Defense the Department of War in its communications. Claims were made that China could approach US warhead numbers within five years, despite US stockpiles remaining significantly larger. China’s arsenal rose from about 350 in 2022 to roughly 410 in 2023, while the US had approximately 3,708 nuclear weapons in 2023.
Read at www.aljazeera.com
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