In a move that has stunned world leaders and alarmed non-proliferation experts, US President Donald Trump announced that he has instructed the Pentagon to “start testing our nuclear weapons on an equal basis” with other countries. The announcement, made on his social media platform Truth Social, hinted at the possible resumption of explosive nuclear testing, something the US has not done since 1992. The timing of the post was equally curious as it came just minutes before his scheduled meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea. Trump’s reference to “other countries testing programs” appeared to allude to recent Russian military developments. Just last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin unveiled the testing of a nuclear-powered underwater drone and a cruise missile, both capable of carrying nuclear warheads. Russia too has not conducted any nuclear detonation since 1990. By framing his decision as a matter of “equal basis,” Trump’s statement evokes chilling memories of the Cold War era’s tit-for-tat arms escalation. “That process will begin immediately,” he declared in the post, using rhetoric that harks back to a time when nuclear brinkmanship was an everyday global concern.
If Trump’s directive indeed refers to renewed explosive testing, such a decision would almost certainly trigger reciprocal actions by other nuclear-armed powers, particularly Russia and China, setting off a new arms race with unpredictable and perilous consequences.
The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), signed by 187 nations, was created precisely to prevent such outcomes. Though the US signed the treaty in 1996, it never ratified it. Still, as a signatory, Washington is legally obligated not to act in violation of its spirit and purpose. For much of the Cold War period, nuclear testing was used to measure the destructive power of atomic and hydrogen bombs. These experiments helped military planners understand both how to use such weapons and how to defend against them. But by the early 1990s, advances in computer modelling and subcritical testing rendered live detonations redundant. The US conducted its last nuclear explosion in 1992, France stopped in 1996. Russia and China have also refrained from full-scale testing since the 1990s. North Korea is the only country that has conducted such tests this century, the most recent being in 2017.
Trump’s announcement comes at a time when global nuclear tensions are at their highest in decades. In recent years, almost all major arms control treaties that kept the nuclear order in check have either collapsed or been abandoned. The last remaining pillar of arms control, the New START Treaty — between the US and Russia — is set to expire in February 2026.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Russia currently holds roughly 5,459 nuclear warheads, followed by the US with 5,177, and China with about 600. Meanwhile, all three powers have been investing heavily in next-generation delivery systems such as hypersonic missiles, stealth bombers, and tactical nukes that blur the lines between conventional and nuclear warfare.
The danger is not just in numbers, but also in the posturing. Several nuclear states have increased the number of warheads “available for use,” those actively deployed or on high alert. These are the weapons most vulnerable to miscalculation or accidental launch, capable of triggering catastrophe within seconds.
Amid this backdrop, Trump’s call for testing threatens to unravel decades of painstaking progress toward nuclear restraint. It risks normalising the very behaviour that the international community has worked to outlaw. Moscow has already revoked its ratification of the CTBT, citing the need to maintain “parity” with Washington. If the US now proceeds with tests, Russia could quickly follow — and others, including China and North Korea, may see it as license to accelerate their own programmes.
The world’s nuclear powers are investing in more accurate, longer-range, and faster systems of delivery mechanism while simultaneously abandoning the treaties that once restrained them. Trump’s latest pronouncement, made without apparent consultation or clarity, threatens to accelerate this dangerous trajectory. The US was the first nation to test a nuclear bomb in 1945 — and remains the only country ever to use one in war with catastrophic consequences. To resume testing now would not only resurrect the ghosts of Hiroshima and Nagasaki but also imperil the fragile global consensus that has, for more than 30 years, kept the nuclear doomsday at bay.
