Have Pakistan, China and Russia secretly conducted nuclear tests as Trump claims?

Donald Trump keeps dropping bombs — and in this case, it’s nuclear.
After 33 years of a moratorium on nuclear testing, United States President Donald Trump, last Thursday, announced that he had instructed the Department of War — earlier known as the Department of Defence — to “immediately” restart testing of nuclear weapons.

To justify his decision, the American leader pointed at Russia and China, saying that while the US has “more nuclear weapons than any other country”, China “will be even within five years”.

Trump’s remarks on nuclear testing have stirred confusion, as he refuses to clarify if he means that whether America would be carrying out actual underground nuclear tests, which were common during the Cold War.

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He further stirred the pot when he claimed in a televised interview that “Russia, China, North Korea and even Pakistan’s testing” but they “don’t talk about it”.

This has got many wondering if Trump’s claims are accurate. Moreover, many are questioning — can nuclear tests be done without others knowing?

What did Trump say on nuclear testing?

Last week, Trump said that the US would begin testing nuclear weapons again for the first time in decades. In fact, the last time, the US conducted a nuclear explosion test was in 1992. Then in 1996, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) was passed by the United Nations. It banned all nuclear test explosions anywhere in the atmosphere, in the ocean or underground.

In a post on Truth Social, the American president wrote, “Because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our nuclear weapons on an equal basis. That process will begin immediately.”

His initial remarks caused confusion and panic for many. It remained unclear whether the US president meant testing nuclear delivery systems or the destructive weapons themselves.

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Are Putin and now Trump's nuclear tests signalling a new arms race?

Many experts believe that Trump’s comments would have a major impact, which could lead the world in the direction of a nuclear arms race.

On Sunday, he further compounded these concerns when he was interviewed by CBS’ 60 Minutes in which he was asked about his decision on nuclear testing. Trump responded, “We have more nuclear weapons than any other country. Russia’s second. China’s a very distant third, but they’ll be even in five years. You know, they’re makin’ ‘em rapidly, and I think we should do something about denuclearisation, which is gonna be some — and I did actually discuss that with both President Putin and President Xi. Denuclearisation’s a very big thing. We have enough nuclear weapons to blow up the world 150 times. Russia has a lot of nuclear weapons, and China will have a lot. They have some.”

🚨 BREAKING: President Trump confirms Russia and China are testing NUCLEAR WEAPONS, so now the US will

60 Minutes is ASSURING the President of the United States she knows more than him.

CBS: Only North Korea is testing!

TRUMP: No. Russia is. And China. You just don't know.… pic.twitter.com/gmYj83oFkM

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) November 3, 2025

When he was pressed on why testing was required, he stated, “Because you have to see how they work. You know, you do have to — and the reason I’m saying — testing is because Russia announced that they were gonna be doing a test. If you notice, North Korea’s testing constantly. Other countries are testing. We’re the only country that doesn’t test, and I wanna be — I don’t wanna be the only country that doesn’t test.”

“Russia’s testing, and China’s testing, but they don’t talk about it. You know, we’re a open society. We’re different. We talk about it. We have to talk about it, because otherwise you people are gonna report — they don’t have reporters that gonna be writing about it. We do. No, we’re gonna test, because they test and others test. And certainly North Korea’s been testing. Pakistan’s been testing,” Trump further added in his interview.

Have countries been conducting nuclear weapons tests?

There’s no concrete evidence to prove that any country, other than North Korea has actually carried out a nuclear weapons test since the 1990s. In fact, there’s a worldwide monitoring system that is tasked with detecting any nuclear tests, known as the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO). Based in Vienna, this agency runs an International Monitoring System (IMS) designed to detect even the smallest indication of a nuclear test.

The IMS includes air-testing stations to detect minute quantities of radioactive elements in the atmosphere, aquatic listening posts to hear underwater tests, infrasound detectors to catch the low-frequency booms and rumbles of explosions in the atmosphere, and seismometers to record the shaking of Earth caused by underground tests.

In fact, since the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty was signed in 1996, only 10 nuclear tests have taken place. In 1998, India and Pakistan conducted two nuclear tests each. North Korea has conducted nuclear tests in 2006, 2009, 2013, 2016 and 2017. It conducted two tests in 2016.

However, not everyone agrees with this. Earlier in April, a study revealed that some earthquakes might actually be covert underground nuclear tests. Led by Joshua Carmichael and published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, the study said that there are significant challenges in distinguishing between natural seismic events and clandestine nuclear explosions.

The study showed that advanced signal detector technology that can identify a 1.7-tonne buried explosion with a 97 per cent success rate only has a 37 per cent success rate when seismic signals from that explosion are hidden within the seismic waveforms of an earthquake that happens within 100 seconds and about 250 kilometres away from the explosion.

But what about Russia’s recent nuclear tests? Recently, Moscow has carried out a successful test of a new nuclear-powered cruise missile, called the Burevestnik. Then, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the successful test of another doomsday weapon — a nuclear-powered underwater drone, which Russia says can be used to attack coastal cities. And even nuclear submarine — the Khabarovsk.

However, experts note that these tests were not nuclear detonations. As Georgia Cole, a research analyst for the UK-based think tank Chatham House’s International Security Programme, told ABC News, “Russia’s alleged tests involve delivery systems capable of carrying nuclear warheads – not nuclear detonations themselves.”

Even the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation found that the tests carried out by Russia don’t meet the criteria for a nuclear test. They define it as “generally controlled explosions of nuclear device, such as bombs or warheads.” Russia’s missile and torpedo tests do not meet that strict definition.

Kremlin spokesman Dimitry Peskov echoed that in a statement too. “All countries are developing their defense systems. This is not a nuclear test,” he said.

So, what is the US planning to do on nuclear testing?

While Trump has remained vague on his plans for nuclear testing, his Energy Secretary Chris Wright provided some clarity on Sunday on America’s plans.

Wright, whose agency is responsible for the future testing said to Fox News that the tests of the US nuclear weapons system ordered up by President Donald Trump would not include nuclear explosions. “I think the tests we’re talking about right now are system tests,” Wright said in an interview on Fox News. “These are not nuclear explosions. These are what we call noncritical explosions.”

He added that the planned testing involves “all the other parts of a nuclear weapon to make sure they deliver the appropriate geometry and they set up the nuclear explosion.”

Many experts and even Democrats argue that nuclear testing isn’t required as the government’s top nuclear officials regularly certify that the nuclear stockpile is safe, secure and reliable — without tests.

Paul Dean, vice president for policy at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a non-proliferation advocacy group, told Politico: “They continue to certify in the absence of testing, so there is no need for a resumption of testing”, adding that each one would cost $140 million.

But Trump remains insistent on testing, as he reiterated in his 60 Minutes interview. “Doesn’t it sorta make sense? You know, you make — you make nuclear weapons, and then you don’t test. How are you gonna do that? How are you gonna know if they work? We have to do that.”

With inputs from agencies