In an unprecedented turn of events, the United States has reignited fears of a nuclear weapons race after President Donald Trump announced in late October 2025 that the country was prepared to resume nuclear-weapons testing. The rationale behind the same, as per the US, is to “act on an equal basis" with Russia and China. The announcement poses substantial legal and diplomatic questions about the existing international framework concerning nuclear testing.

The legal landscape surrounding nuclear weapons and their testing has always been complex. While the United Nations Charter, under Article 2(4), prohibits the threat or use of force against another state’s territorial integrity or political independence, it does not deal directly with the testing of nuclear weapons. The International Court of Justice (ICJ), in its landmark 1996 Advisory Opinion on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, held that the use of nuclear weapons would generally be contrary to international law and the UN Charter. However, the opinion did not address the inherent tension between the........

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