Campaigners in Wales are warning against a 'return to cold war' as Donald Trump announces a return to nuclear testing.

CND Cymru, the Welsh Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, has warned that the earth is a step closer to returning to the politics of the cold war, with rising tensions, tit-for-tat exchanges, nuclear proliferation, and the nuclear brinkmanship that dominated the era.

On Thursday, President of the United States, Donald Trump, wrote on social media: "Because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis."

The USA has not conducted tests since 1992.

Russia has been testing and upgrading their nuclear delivery system, and recently held nuclear drills. North Korea has announced and operated a new spate of sea-to-surface missile tests following Trump's recent visit to South Korea.

Reacting to the announcement, CND Cymru National Secretary, Dylan Lewis-Rowlands, who is also the Deputy Mayor of Aberystwyth Town Council, said: “It is ever clearer we are being dragged into a new era of cold war by Washington warhawks.

“We have both the opportunity and the duty to de-escalate tensions, and work with international partners towards a lasting global peace and security. Instead, Britain is also ramping up nuclear tensions and is breaching its obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty - which is clearly no longer fit for purpose.

"Britain must join a majority of the nation-states in the UN in endorsing, ratifying, and implementing the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the TPNW.

"We must engage constructively to de-escalate tensions, which requires us to move away from the Washington warhawks and become a pillar and upholder of the global rules-based order, rather than an escalatory and destabilising presence on the world stage.

"The best way and biggest step towards doing that is joining the TPNW, and disarming our nuclear weapons.”

Painting a picture of wider tensions across the globe, CND Cymru also warned of escalations between India and Pakistan and Israel, which possesses a secret nuclear arsenal, who it says continues to stoke tensions with Iran.

CND Cymru added: “In Europe, NATO recently conducted joint nuclear exercises, codenamed ‘Steadfast Noon’.

“Non-nuclear NATO members, including Poland, Germany, and the Baltic States, continue to press for the creation and extension of a European nuclear umbrella (consisting of either or both French and British nuclear weapons), or the ability to develop their own nuclear weapons.

“The Westminster government is also currently in breach of its obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty, or NPT, after the agreement to purchase F35-A nuclear capable jets from the US was announced.

“These jets, purchased from the USA, and capable of carrying ‘conventional’ gravity US-made bombs, will be made available to NATO under its Dual Capability programme, and will mark the UK joining the full nuclear NATO programme.

“Legal experts have warned that these new advancements, particularly the extension of British nuclear capabilities to air-deployed weapons, constitute a breach of the NPT, of which the UK is a signatory.”