00:00Russia on 11th November offered to discuss with the United States allegations from Washington
00:05that it had carried out secret underground nuclear tests in a bid to ease tensions between
00:11the world's top two nuclear superpowers. Russia has tested its nuclear-powered,
00:17nuclear-capable weapon systems in recent weeks, but rejects the accusation by US President Donald
00:24Trump that it had secretly detonated a nuclear device. Trump caused concern and confusion last
00:31month when he said he was ordering the United States to test its atomic weapons in retaliation
00:37for drills carried out by Russia and China, accusations rejected by both Moscow and Beijing.
00:45None of the three countries has publicly tested a nuclear warhead since the 1990s,
00:50and all three have signed, but not ratified, the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
00:56that bans all atomic test blasts, whether for military or civilian purposes.
01:02Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov offered on 11th November to speak to Washington
01:07about its concerns. He told state media in a televised interview,
01:13We are ready to discuss the suspicions raised by our American colleagues regarding the possibility
01:19that we might be secretly doing something deep underground. Trump had levelled the accusations
01:25that both Russia and China had secretly tested nuclear weapons in an interview with US broadcaster
01:33CBS News earlier this month after abruptly shelving a proposed summit with Putin on Ukraine.
01:40Like all armed states, Russia regularly tests its delivery systems,
01:44but has rejected the accusation it has carried out unannounced weapons tests.
01:50Lavrov said the United States could check whether Russia had tested a nuclear warhead
01:54via the global seismic monitoring system.
01:58Lavrov added,
01:59Other tests, both subcritical or those without a chain nuclear reaction,
02:04and carrier tests, have never been prohibited.
02:08Russia said it had not received any clarification from Washington
02:11as to the specifics of its allegations.
02:15Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters during a telephone briefing,
02:20So far, no explanations have been provided by our American counterparts.
02:26Russia and the United States hold a combined 8,000 deployed and stored warheads,
02:31according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute,
02:35around 85% of the world's total.
02:38Lavrov's interview was his first televised appearance in almost two weeks,
02:43with his absence prompting media speculation that he might have fallen out with Putin,
02:48something that the Kremlin repeatedly denied.
02:52Press reports suggested that a planned summit between Putin and Trump in Budapest
02:57was cancelled after Lavrov had a tense phone call with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
03:04He addressed those claims directly, saying,
03:06We spoke well, politely, without any breakdown.
03:10Since the pair spoke, Lavrov said there had been no further steps from the Americans,
03:16who he said had initially proposed the summit.
03:20Trump shelved the plans and slapped Moscow with new sanctions,
03:24after saying Putin was not serious about ending the conflict in Ukraine.
03:29Lavrov said the recent nuclear tensions had nothing to do with the cancelled summit.
03:33He said, I would not mix the topic of nuclear tests with the topic of the Budapest summit.
03:39He said Moscow was still open to a possible meeting between Putin and Trump.
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