US President Donald Trump’s decision to restart US nuclear weapons testing, after a three-decade hiatus, has left allies anxious, adversaries alert and arms-control experts warning that even a hint of renewed testing could unravel a decades-old global taboo.
Announced via a Truth Social post, Trump claimed he had instructed the rechristened Department of War to begin testing “on an equal basis” with Russia and China.
While it remains unclear what exactly the infamously ambiguous Republican leader meant by “nuclear testing”, analysts sensed he appeared to conflate missile tests — which the US already conducts without live warheads — with explosive warhead tests, which no major power has undertaken since the 1990s.
The confusion over terminology has fuelled concern that Trump’s vague order could open the door to full-scale explosive tests.
Around the world, security experts and officials warn that resuming nuclear tests would be a destabilising step with far-reaching consequences. “Any explosive nuclear weapon test by any state would be harmful and destabilising for global non-proliferation efforts and for international peace and security,” Robert Floyd, head of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organisation in Vienna
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