China rejected accusations lodged by US President Donald Trump that it was conducting secret nuclear testing, asserting that China abides by its obligations to the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and advised the US to adhere to the same.

Addressing a regular press conference on Monday, Mao Ning, spokesperson of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs asserted that as “a responsible nuclear-weapon state, China is committed to peaceful development, follows a policy of ‘no first use’ of nuclear weapons and a nuclear strategy that focuses on self-defense, and adheres to its nuclear testing moratorium.”

In an interview broadcasted on CBS News on Sunday, Trump had claimed that he ordered the immediate resumption of nuclear tests in the country because other countries are already conducting tests, which may compromise Washington’s superiority in terms of nuclear weapons.

In a surprising move on Thursday, before meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea, Trump asked the Pentagon, through his social media page, to resume nuclear tests immediately.

Trump accused Russia, China, and Pakistan, along with North Korea of conducting such nuclear tests without providing any evidence. He also claimed that it is difficult to know about these tests because of the “closed” nature of those societies.

“We are going to test, because they [China and Russia] test and others test,” Trump said during the CBS News interview.

Following China, several other countries have also rejected Trump’s accusation, denying they have conducted tests secretly.

Kremlin spokesperson Demitry Peskov was quoted by Reuters saying that the world came to know about nuclear testing only after Trump’s interview. Before “we didn’t know that anyone was testing,” Peskov said.

Pakistan said on Monday it will not be the first to resume nuclear weapons’ tests in South Asia.

Ning appealed to the US to abide by the moratorium on the nuclear tests and “take concrete actions to uphold the international nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime, as well as global strategic balance and stability.”

Fear of proliferation

Reacting to Trump’s call for the resumption of nuclear tests, Robert Floyd, executive secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) said in a statement on Thursday that “any explosive nuclear weapons test by any state would be harmful and destabilizing for global non-proliferation efforts and for international peace and security.”

He appealed to world leaders to work together for a world free of nuclear weapons.

China, according to Ning, is “ready to work with all parties to jointly uphold the authority” of the CTBT and “safeguard the international nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime.”

Responding to Trump’s announcement of the resumption of nuclear tests, Sergei Shoigu, secretary of Russia’s security council, told the press on Friday that if the US resumes testing Russia will do the same.

The CTBT was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1996. The treaty bans all kinds of nuclear tests for either civilian or military purposes.

It has been signed and ratified by over 178 countries in the world. However, a section of the nuclear powered nations, such as India, Pakistan, and Israel, have neither signed nor ratified the treaty.

Though both China and the US have signed the treaty neither of them have ratified it.

However, the moratorium on nuclear tests has lasted more than two decades now. Except for North Korea, no other nuclear power has conducted weapons’ tests since the 1990s.

According to Reuters, the last US nuclear test was conducted in 1992. After that a moratorium on such tests was announced by then-president George H. W. Bush. Russia and China conducted their last tests in 1990 and 1996 respectively. India and Pakistan conducted their last nuclear tests in 1998.

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