A Pakistani official told CBS News that the country "will not be the first to resume nuclear tests" in response to President Trump's assertion in an interview with 60 Minutes that the country has conducted nuclear weapons tests, along with Russia and China.
"Pakistan was not the first to carry out nuclear tests and will not be the first to resume nuclear tests," the senior Pakistani security official told CBS News.
China was the first of the nations accused by Mr. Trump in his interview with CBS News correspondent Norah O'Donnell to deny any secret nuclear testing.
"Russia's testing, and China's testing, but they don't talk about it," Mr. Trump said, explaining his recent announcement that the U.S. would carry out tests of its nuclear weapons. "We're gonna test, because they test and others test. And certainly North Korea's been testing. Pakistan's been testing."
Trump made the assertion to O'Donnell during an interview that was broadcast just days after the president's own nominee to lead STRATCOM — the U.S. military command in charge of nuclear weapons — told lawmakers on Capitol Hill that neither China nor Russia were conducting nuclear explosive tests.
North Korea is the only nation known to have conducted a nuclear detonation since the 1990s. China's last known nuclear explosive test was in 1996.
Pakistan's last known nuclear explosive test was in 1998, and it since then its government says it has observed a "unilateral moratorium on nuclear testing," despite not being a signatory to the international Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
The U.S. is among almost 180 nations that have signed the CTBT, which bans all atomic test explosions.
Along with China and several other nuclear powers, however, the U.S. has never ratified the treaty, a situation that President Vladimir Putin highlighted two years ago when he decided to revoke Moscow's ratification.
While Russia has stepped up its own tests of nuclear-capable weapons systems, it has not said it will resume nuclear detonations.
On its website, the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs says that "despite being a non-signatory state, Pakistan been supporting the objectives and purposes of the Treaty," and that in addition to its moratorium on nuclear tests, it "will not be the first to resume testing of nuclear weapons in South Asia."
Asked about Mr. Trump's claims on Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters during a press briefing that as a "responsible nuclear-weapons state, China has always ... upheld a self-defense nuclear strategy and abided by its commitment to suspend nuclear testing."
She said China hoped the U.S. would "take concrete actions to safeguard the international nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime and maintain global strategic balance and stability."
There was no immediate reaction from Moscow to Mr. Trump's claim that Russia has also conducted secret nuclear tests.
What does Trump mean by U.S. resuming nuclear tests?
President Trump has not been clear about whether his stated plan to have the U.S. military test its nuclear arsenal include conducting actual atomic explosions, which have not been carried out in the U.S. more than 30 years, or just expanded testing of the weapons systems used to deliver nuclear warheads.
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who was appointed by Mr. Trump, downplayed the notion on Sunday that the U.S. was about to start setting off 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."
Imtiaz Tyab contributed to this report.
