The Kremlin reacted cautiously on Thursday to U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments about the U.S. resumption of nuclear weapons testing, saying Russia had not carried out tests but that Moscow would follow suit if Washington did.
Trump on Thursday ordered the US Armed Forces to immediately resume testing nuclear weapons after a 33-year gap, minutes before starting a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Trump said that because of “other countries’ testing programs,” the United States will begin testing “on an equal basis.”
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“President Trump mentioned in his statement that other countries are engaged in testing nuclear weapons. Until now, we were not aware that anyone was testing,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Russia, he said, had not received any prior notification from the United States about a change in Washington’s position on nuclear testing.
Asked whether the Kremlin thought a new nuclear arms race had been triggered by Trump’s comments, Peskov said: “Not really.”
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Peskov stressed that the Russian test of the Burevestnik cruise missile on October 21 and the Poseidon nuclear-powered supertorpedo on October 28 were definitely not nuclear weapons tests.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who commands the world’s largest nuclear arsenal, has repeatedly said that if any country tests a nuclear weapon, Russia will do so too.
“I want to remind President Putin’s statement, which has been repeated many times: if anyone moves away from the moratorium, Russia will act accordingly,” Peskov said.
Post-Soviet Russia has never tested a nuclear weapon. The Soviet Union last tested in 1990, the United States in 1992 and China in 1996.
