US discussed holding first nuclear test in decades: Report
24 May, 2020
President Donald Trump's administration has discussed holding the first US nuclear test since 1992 as a potential warning to Russia and China, the Washington Post reported Friday.
Such a test will be a significant departure from US defense policy and considerably up the ante for other nuclear-armed nations. One analyst told the newspaper that if it were to go ahead it would be seen as the "starting gun to an unprecedented nuclear arms race".
The report, citing one senior administration official and two former officials, all who spoke anonymously, said the discussion had taken place at a meeting on, may 15.
It came after some US officials reportedly claimed that Russia and China were conducting their own low-yield tests. Moscow and Beijing have denied the claims, and the united states hasn't offered evidence for them.
The senior administration official said that demonstrating Washington's capability to "rapid test" will be a useful negotiating tactic as the united states seeks a trilateral agreement with Russia and China over nuclear weapons.
The meeting didn't conclude with any agreement, and the sources were divided over whether discussions were still ongoing.
Nuclear non-proliferation activists were quick to condemn the theory.
"It will be the starting gun to an unprecedented nuclear arms race," Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, told the Post.
He added that it could also likely "disrupt" negotiations with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, "who may no more feel compelled to honor his moratorium on nuclear testing."
The Trump administration has repeatedly shaken up US defense policy.
The Washington Post report came 1 day after Trump announced that he plans to withdraw from the Open Skies treaty with Russia, that was made to improve military transparency and confidence between your superpowers.
It is the third arms control pact Trump has abrogated since coming to office.
Russia has insisted it will abide by the 18-year-old agreement, which seeks to lessen the chance of war by permitting each signatory country's military to conduct a certain number of surveillance flights over another member country each year on short notice.
European nations have also urged Trump to reconsider.
Facing re-election in November, Trump in addition has considerably hardened his rhetoric against China in recent weeks, repeatedly criticizing Beijing's handling of the coronavirus pandemic which first emerged there.
He has made repeated but vague threats of retaliation against the principle US economic rival, which has denied all his accusations.
Earlier this month Trump needed involving China in new arms control talks with Russia, telling his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin they need to avoid a "costly arms race".
It is not the 1st time Trump's defense policy has raised concerns the administration is elevating the chance of nuclear war.
In February the Pentagon announced it had deployed a submarine carrying a fresh long-range missile with a relatively small nuclear warhead, saying it had been in response to Russian tests of similar weapons.
Critics worry that small nukes would be more likely to be utilized because they cause less damage, thereby lowering the threshold for nuclear conflict.
However the Pentagon says it is crucial to deterring rivals like Moscow who might assume that, with only large, massively destructive nuclear weapons in its arsenal, the united states would not react to another country's first use of a small, "tactical" nuclear bomb.
Source: www.thejakartapost.com