Nuclear Testing Braggadocio A Distraction From China's Build-Up

2025-11-10 03:17:59

(MENAFN- Asia Times) A ludicrous war of words is going on about which country plans to test its nuclear weapons for the first time in three decades and what, if anything, this might tell you about how big, bad and bold Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin might be.

That is a somewhat pathetic distraction from the much more important nuclear issue that the so-called great powers need to address. This is the rapid build-up being made by Russia's“strategic partner,” China, of its nuclear arsenal and its refusal to hold any serious talks about arms control or transparency.

Threatening to test nuclear weapons is just a display of braggadocio, which shows that the current leaders of the two biggest nuclear states have lost the sense of seriousness and responsibility that helped keep the world safe during the four often tense decades of the Cold War.

The Partial Test Ban Treaty signed in 1963 by America, the Soviet Union and Britain banned all tests in the air, outer space or under water. The last underground test was conducted by the United States in 1992. Then in 1996 the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty was agreed upon at the United Nations with an aim of banning all tests. This treaty has, however, never come into force – although most countries have signed it.

The resumption of nuclear tests by either Russia or the United States would signify the discarding of such collective agreements and, in effect, the rejection of the whole idea of agreed restraints. It would be a sign that relationships between the nuclear superpowers were breaking down and that long-held norms of behavior and transparency could no longer be relied upon.

This would carry the risk of encouraging other countries to seek nuclear weapons and would imply that if there was any real crisis between Russia and America it could become as dangerous as was the stand-off over nuclear missiles in Cuba in 1962 that gave rise to the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty.

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