TRUMP RAISES THE NUCLEAR STAKES

The US president's call to resume tests has shaken a fragile non-proliferation order, raising the spectre of a new arms race

- BY RAKESH SOOD

On October 30, US president Donald Trump shocked the world, including his own nuclear establishment, by announcing on Truth Social that he had “instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis. That process will begin immediately”. His justification was that Russia and China were engaged in testing nuclear weapons and while “Russia is second, and China is a distant third, but will be even within 5 years”.

The confusion generated was palpable. The same day, appearing for confirmation hearings before Senate Armed Forces Committee, Vice Admiral Richard Correll, nominated as head of the Strategic Command, when asked about Trump's announcement, affirmed full confidence in the “reliability” of the US nuclear arsenal (the STRATCOM certifies it annually in January) only to add that “I wouldn't presume the President's words mean nuclear testing”, maintaining that he was “not reading anything into it or reading anything out”.