A senior Pakistani official has reaffirmed that the country will not be the first to restart nuclear testing, responding to recent remarks by former U.S. President Donald Trump suggesting that Pakistan had conducted such tests.
Pakistan Denies Trump’s Claim
In an interview with CBS News, the official stated, “Pakistan was not the first to carry out nuclear tests and will not be the first to resume nuclear tests.” The comment came after Trump claimed in a 60 Minutes interview that Pakistan, along with Russia and China, had been conducting nuclear weapons tests.
China First To Dismiss Allegation
China was the first among the countries mentioned by Trump to deny engaging in any covert nuclear testing. “Russia’s testing, and China’s testing, but they don’t talk about it,” Trump told CBS News correspondent Norah O’Donnell, while defending his decision to resume U.S. nuclear testing. “We’re going to test, because they test and others test. And certainly North Korea’s been testing. Pakistan’s been testing,” he added.
Pakistan’s Testing History
North Korea remains the only country known to have conducted an actual nuclear detonation since the 1990s. China’s last confirmed test took place in 1996, while Pakistan’s occurred in 1998.
Since then, Islamabad has maintained that it observes a “unilateral moratorium on nuclear testing,” despite not being a signatory to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).
Global Treaty And US Position
The United States is among nearly 180 nations that have signed the CTBT, which prohibits all nuclear explosions. However, like China and several other nuclear powers, Washington has yet to ratify the treaty – a point Russian President Vladimir Putin highlighted two years ago when Moscow withdrew its ratification.