The Trump administration is considering whether to carry out a “rapid” nuclear test – its first since 1992 – which could be a useful bargaining chip in dealing with Russia and China, according to media reports.
The proposal to cause a controlled nuclear explosion is “very much an ongoing conversation,” a high-ranked administration official told the Washington Post on Saturday.
The Trump administration believes that a “rapid test” could prove useful in making Moscow and Beijing negotiate a nuclear-weapons-related trilateral deal with Washington, the paper’s sources said.
The rationale behind the United States holding its first test of this kind since 1992 involves a convenient allegation that Russia and China have resumed testing low-yield nuclear munitions. So far, however, there is no publicly available evidence substantiating the claims, the Post itself noted.
