Sergei Lavrov said Russia’s Foreign and Defence Ministries are implementing Putin’s order to assess nuclear test preparedness.
Putin stated Moscow would only resume testing if Washington does so first.
The move follows Donald Trump’s announcement that the U.S. plans to restart nuclear weapons testing after 30 years.
Lavrov Says Putin’s Orders on Possible Nuclear Test Preparations ‘Being Worked On’
Russia’s foreign minister confirmed that agencies are studying President Putin’s directive to explore readiness for nuclear testing if the U.S. withdraws from the test ban moratorium.
Summary
On Saturday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that President Vladimir Putin's most recent directives regarding researching the viability of restarting nuclear testing "are being worked on."
Putin instructed the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Defence, the intelligence services, and civilian agencies to submit proposals on the possibility of preparing for nuclear weapons tests by Russia if the United States were to withdraw from the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) moratorium on nuclear tests during his Security Council meeting on November 5, which Lavrov was not present.
“The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has accepted for implementation the instruction given by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Security Council meeting on November 5; it has been accepted for implementation and is being worked on,” Lavrov was quoted as saying by official news agencies TASS and RIA Novosti.
“The public will be informed of the results,” Lavrov was quoted by the Russian agencies.
According to Lavrov, Moscow has not yet received any explanation of US President Donald Trump’s comment on the resumption of nuclear tests from Washington through diplomatic channels.
“So far, we have not received any explanation of what President Donald Trump meant when he announced the resumption of nuclear tests,” Lavrov told reporters, TASS said.
Putin was seen stating that Russia would only resume nuclear testing if the United States did so first during the televised meeting with his Security Council.
It was in reaction to US President Donald Trump's declaration last week that his administration intends to start testing the country's nuclear weapons again after a three-decade hiatus.
Prior to his October 30 meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trump declared that the United States would begin conducting nuclear weapons tests on a "equal basis" with adversaries.
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With PTI inputs.
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