There have been reports since 2019 on Russia and China’s potential noncompliance with the Threshold Test Ban Treaty, one of President Donald Trump’s Department of Defense nominees said in Senate testimony Tuesday.
Robert Kadlec, Trump’s nominee to be assistant secretary of defense for nuclear deterrence, chemical, and biological defense policy and programs, mentioned the reports while testifying to the Senate Armed Services Committee.
During the hearing Kadlec responded to questions on Trump’s announcement that he directed the Pentagon to test nuclear weapons “on an equal basis” with other countries. To add more confusion, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said in an interview with Fox News that he thinks these are “not nuclear explosions,” but noncritical “systems tests.” However, Trump did not clarify the issue in an interview on CBS’s 60 Minutes Sunday.
Ranking member Jack Reed (D-R.I.) asked about both interviews, and how Kadlec would proceed if confirmed.
Kadlec said he has identified “a pattern” of “concerns” dating back to 2019 about the adherence and compliance of both Russia and China to the Threshold Test Ban Treaty. The treaty was signed during the Cold War and put in force in 1990, ordering nuclear testing not to exceed 150 kilotons. China did not sign this treaty, as it was between the U.S. and then-Soviet Union. But China did sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Kadlec said while the information is “classified” and he is “not privy” to it, “in 2020, 2021 and 2025” there were reports of noncompliance.
“I may be speculating,” Kadlec said, to which he added he didn’t think “would be helpful to anybody.”
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) similarly said the president was “not being completely clear” on whether or not the U.S. will resume explosive nuclear testing, and asked later what “strategic benefit we would get by continuing or starting to conduct explosive nuclear tests today?” When comparing the U.S.’s 1,054 past nuclear tests to China’s 40 tests, the U.S. testing again would “clearly benefit [the Chinese] if our resumption of nuclear testing was to push them to test their nuclear weapons.”
“It doesn’t seem the president has done any clarification on this, what he meant,” Kelly continued. “He’s had the opportunity a number of times to comment on it,” but “doesn’t want to admit that he misspoke, but this is a destabilization issue between us, Russia, and the Chinese.”
Kadlec, when asked if he agreed, said “there are a number of things that are destabilizing about the current strategic environment that have little to do with testing and everything to do with the modernization that Russia has performed, development of asymmetric nuclear capabilities.” The issue was the “same with China” as both were trending toward “closer collaboration” with each other, Kadlec added.