Work underway on Vladimir Putin's instructions about nuclear tests: Russian Foreign Ministry

Moscow: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday said President Vladimir Putin's latest instructions about studying the feasibility of resuming nuclear tests “is being worked on.” During his Security Council meeting on November 5, at which Lavrov was absent, 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 US were to walk out of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) moratorium on nuclear tests.

“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.

During the televised meeting with his Security Council, Putin was seen asserting that Russia will restart the nuclear tests only if the US did so first.

It was in response to US President Donald Trump's announcement last week that his administration plans to resume testing of the US' own nuclear assets after a gap of over three decades.

Ahead of his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on October 30, Trump announced that the US will start testing nuclear weapons on an “equal basis” with rival powers.