After Donald Trump’s remarks, Russia prepares for nuclear tests, Putin orders officials to submit…

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday directed officials to begin preparing proposals for the possible resumption of nuclear tests, as reported by AP. The move follows a statement last week by US President Doland Trump suggesting the United States might resume its nuclear tests. During a speech at a National Security Council meeting, Putin echoed his earlier remark that Russia would only resume nuclear testing if the United States does. Nonetheless, he called for the Defense Ministry, Foreign Ministry, and a number of government departments to study Washington’s intentions and prepare possible proposals to resume nuclear weapons tests.

Doland Trump on October 30 suggested that the U.S. might reinitiate nuclear weapons testing for the first time in almost 30 years. He asserted that he would take this step to keep in line with Russia and China. In a statement on Sunday, Chris Wright, U.S. Secretary of Energy said that new tests of the U.S. nuclear weapons system ordered by Trump will not include nuclear explosions.

The U.S. military has routinely tested nuclear-capable weapons but hasn’t conducted a nuclear detonation since 1992. The United States signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) but didn’t ratify, and has been adopted by all nuclear-armed states except North Korea, which has not joined the treaty.