Won’t join arms race despite provocation, says Russia

Moscow, August 20

Russia and China today warned that the new US missile test had heightened military tensions and risked sparking an arms race, weeks after Washington ripped up a Cold War-era weapons pact with Moscow. The US and Russia ditched the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty this month after accusing each other of violating the accord.

Washington said the agreement also tied its hands in dealing with other powers, such as China. The United States Department of Defence announced on Monday it had tested a type of ground-launched missile that was banned under the 1987 INF agreement, which limited the use of nuclear and conventional medium-range weapons.

“The US has obviously taken a course towards escalation of military tensions. We won’t react to provocations,” Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told state news agency TASS.

Ryabkov said the test showed Washington had been working on such missiles long before its official withdrawal from the deal.

In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said: “This measure from the US will trigger a new round of arms race, leading to escalation of military confrontation.” He warned that the test “will have a serious negative impact on the international and regional security situation.”

The US should “let go of its Cold War mentality” and “do more things that are conducive to international and regional peace and tranquillity,” Geng added.

Speaking in France before news of the US test-launch broke, President Vladimir Putin said Russia would only deploy medium or shorter-range missiles in response to similar moves by the US. “If the US produces such offensive systems, we will also do so,” he said before meeting French leader Emmanuel Macron. Moscow and Washington have long criticised the treaty but Putin said it was the US that made the decision to “unilaterally” withdraw.

"The traditional sense of an arms race has been in a nuclear context. Right now, we don't have plans to build nuclear-tipped INF-range weapons,” he said. 

The US launch came weeks after a deadly explosion at a Russian testing site, which western experts linked to Moscow's attempts to develop a nuclear-powered missile. The blast killed five scientists and caused a spike in radiation levels, although Russi remains tightlipped on it. — AFP