(MENAFN- Live Mint) Pakistan has dismissed US President Donald Trump's claim that the country has conducted recent nuclear weapons tests, asserting it remains committed to its moratorium on such activities.

"Pakistan was not the first to carry out nuclear tests and will not be the first to resume nuclear tests," CBS News quoted a senior Pakistani security official as saying, responding to Trump's remarks made during a 60 Minutes interview.

The official emphasized that Islamabad continues to observe a“unilateral moratorium on nuclear testing” that has been in place since its last test in 1998.

Trump accuses multiple nations of testing

In the interview, Trump claimed that Russia, China, Pakistan, and North Korea have all been testing nuclear weapons.

"Russia's testing, and China's testing, but they don't talk about it," Trump said, defending his recent announcement that the US would carry out nuclear weapons tests.

"We're gonna test, because they test and others test. And certainly North Korea's been testing. Pakistan's been testing," he added.

However, North Korea is the only nation known to have conducted a nuclear detonation since the 1990s. China's last confirmed nuclear test was in 1996, and Pakistan's in 1998.

China also rejects allegations

Beijing was the first among the accused nations to respond. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning rejected Trump's claim, saying China“has always upheld a self-defense nuclear strategy and abided by its commitment to suspend nuclear testing.”

She added that China hopes the US will“take concrete actions to safeguard the international nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime and maintain global strategic balance and stability.”

US, China, and CTBT

Both the US and China have signed but not ratified the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), which prohibits all nuclear test explosions.

Pakistan, while not a signatory, says it supports the“objectives and purposes of the Treaty” and maintains that it“will not be the first to resume testing of nuclear weapons in South Asia.”

Russia, which ratified the treaty in 2000, revoked its ratification two years ago under President Vladimir Putin, though it has not announced plans to resume nuclear detonations.

While Russia has intensified tests of its nuclear-capable weapons systems, it has not indicated any plans to resume nuclear detonations.

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Amid Trump's comments, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright, a Trump appointee, clarified that the tests under consideration do not involve actual nuclear explosions.

"I think the tests we're talking about right now are system tests. These are not nuclear explosions," Wright told Fox News.

"These are what we call 'non-critical explosions,' so you're testing all the other parts of a nuclear weapon to make sure they deliver the appropriate geometry and they set up the nuclear explosion," he explained.

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