MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) has criticised the United States after reports emerged that the administration of US President Donald Trump may review to resume nuclear testing.
“A Trump nuclear test would cross a line no nation thought the US would ever cross again, and is threatening the health and safety of all people. Testing poisons environments, food and lives – Americans are still dying from the original nuclear weapons tests. It would also blow up any chance of avoiding a dangerous new nuclear arms race. It would complete the erosion of the global arms control framework and plunge us back into a new Cold War. Only a multilateral solution can shore up these bilateral treaties Trump is ripping up. The TPNW [Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons] is that solution”, ICAN Executive Director Beatrice Fihn said in a statement.
The Washington Post has reported earlier that members of the Trump White House were discussing first US nuclear tests since 1992 in the face of alleged threats from Russia and China.
Adopted at the UN in 2017, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons aims to achieve the total elimination of nuclear weapons. To enter force, it requires 50 states to ratify it. As of now, 37 countries have done so.
The issue has been raised amid the US-Russian discussions about the possibility to prolong the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), which expires in February 2021.
Russia has repeatedly invited the United States to extend the New START for another five years without preconditions. However, the Trump administration has signalled that it favours negotiating an amended arms control regime that would also include China and possibly the United Kingdom and France.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
