Nuclear Testing Revival: A Precarious Rekindle

Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov warned against the resumption of nuclear testing by the U.S., highlighting an extremely hostile posture on arms control. This concern arises amidst modernization efforts of arsenals by global powers as Cold War treaties collapse, resurrecting nuclear testing tensions from a few decades ago.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, Russia's top authority on arms control, issued a stark warning to the incoming administration of Donald Trump against resuming nuclear testing. Ryabkov emphasized that Moscow would keep its response options open, citing Washington's 'extremely hostile' approach.

The potential resumption of nuclear testing by the U.S. and Russia could herald a new era fraught with danger, nearly 80 years after the first nuclear test by the U.S. at Alamogordo, New Mexico in 1945. Both nations, along with China, are actively upgrading their nuclear arsenals in a landscape where past arms control treaties between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union have disintegrated.

In a direct message to the U.S., Ryabkov highlighted Trump's aggressive stance on the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), which the Trump administration contemplated testing during its first term. In a move echoing this tension, Russian President Vladimir Putin revoked Russia's ratification of the CTBT in this year following the U.S.'s example, amplifying fears from arms control experts of a possible return to nuclear testing.

(With inputs from agencies.)