Damascus, Oct 30, (dpa/GNA) – German Foreign Minister, Johann Wadephul, on Thursday urged the US and Russia to refrain from conducting new nuclear weapons testing, after US President Donald Trump, announced plans to restart tests for the first time in more than 30 years.
“It is crucial that all five nuclear weapon states continue to adhere to the respective test ban moratoriums,” Germany’s top diplomat said in response to a journalist’s question, during a visit to Damascus.
“The test ban moratorium must be maintained,” he stressed, including by North Korea, “the only country to have conducted nuclear tests in the 21st century.”
In a post on Truth Social, Trump on Thursday announced the immediate start of new nuclear weapons tests, justifying the measure by citing other countries’ testing programmes.
The type of tests and the weapons to be trialled remained unclear. The US last conducted tests of this kind in the 1990s.
This led Russia to say that it could resume nuclear weapons testing, sparking fears of a new nuclear arms race.
Wadephul said he believed that “what President Trump announced here is more of a reaction to Russia’s use of nuclear-powered systems in the past.”
He said Berlin was still trying to work out what exactly the US president had meant.
“We will have to discuss this with our American colleagues,” the minister said.
“At this point in time, I do not understand this as the immediate resumption of nuclear tests, which, incidentally, would also require considerable preparation.”
GNA