Washington DC [US], December 12 (ANI): US President Donald Trump said Thursday he has discussed the denuclearisation of weapons with China and Russia, and hopes all sides will work to reduce nuclear arsenals.
Speaking to reporters at the White House after signing an executive order to prevent a “patchwork” of state-level artificial intelligence rules, Trump said the denuclearisation of weapons is something the countries with the most nuclear warheads would want to pursue.
“One of the things I talked to China about is the denuclearisation of weapons. We’d like to see if we could stop that. I’m talking about nuclear weapons. I’ve spoken to China about that. I’ve spoken to Russia about that. And I think it would be something that we would want to do, and they would like to do, and I think Russia would like to do,” he said.
In October, Trump said while denuclearisation would be a “tremendous thing,” restarting US nuclear testing after more than three decades was “appropriate,” citing Russia’s trials of advanced nuclear-capable systems, including the Poseidon underwater drone, as a significant escalation.
“They seem to all be nuclear testing,” Trump told reporters, referring to Russia and China. “We have more nuclear weapons than anybody. We don’t do testing… but with others doing testing, I think it’s appropriate that we do also.” He added that preparations for testing were already in place. “We have test sites. It’ll be announced,” he said, without providing timing or location.
Last month, the US completed a series of critical stockpile flight tests of the B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb carried by the stealth F-35A, the Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories reported. Tests were conducted August 19–21 at the Tonopah Test Range in Nevada with support from Hill Air Force Base in Utah. Inert B61-12 units were successfully released from the F-35A, confirming end-to-end performance of the aircraft, aircrew, and weapon under operational conditions.
Separately, the US on Monday reaffirmed that the “complete denuclearisation” of North Korea remains a shared priority with South Korea, after the latest US National Security Strategy (NSS) omitted explicit references to the North, Yonhap News Agency reported. Acting US Ambassador to South Korea Kevin Kim told reporters he and South Korea’s First Vice Foreign Minister Park Yoon-joo were told the Trump administration continues to prioritise denuclearisation on the Korean Peninsula.
“President Trump and President Lee (Jae Myung) reiterated their commitment to the complete denuclearisation of North Korea in the joint fact sheet. That is our Korea policy right now,” Kim said, as quoted by Yonhap.
The new NSS, released earlier this month, does not specifically mention North Korea or restate the US commitment to its denuclearisation as previous versions did in 2017 and 2022, prompting concerns the issue may receive less emphasis. South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the NSS reflects a broader approach that focuses less on individual conflicts and noted the US has consistently reaffirmed its stance on denuclearisation in key statements and summit agreements, Yonhap reported. (ANI)
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