AFTER its tariff turmoil and trade war, President Donald Trump has turned to nuclear testing, which he considers an important step to the security and geopolitical interests of the United States in a multipolar world in which the US status is declining rapidly.

As geopolitical tension rises between the US, Russia, and China, and the US prioritizes nuclear modernization, the global hope for arms control and disarmament is fading away. These nuclear rivals appear to be indulging themselves into an unending new arms race with strategic implications impinging upon them and their allies.

President Trump`s decision to resume nuclear testing after a gap of more than three decades has sparked great concerns about the prospects of arms control and disarmament frameworks, as pledged in the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, which are already fragile. The move has come amidst the failure of Trump`s efforts to bring Russia and China to the negotiating table for multilateral nuclear arms control negotiations. As the US-Russia talks on extending the new START dwindle, and China continues to show unwillingness to join multilateral negotiations alongside the US and Russia, Washington is finding a new way of securing its interests of strategic dominance and geopolitical goals. Russia and the US have adopted different........

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