Russia, China calls Security meeting after US missile test
The latest missile test that was carried out by the United States has called for Moscow and Beijing warning against the ‘threats to international peace and security’.
On Monday, the US announced it had tested a conventionally configured ground-launched cruise missile in California [US Department of Defense/Reuters]. The configured cruise missile that hit its target after more than 500km of flight, the first such test since the US pulled out of Cold War-era Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.
Russia and China have asked the United Nations Security Council to meet on Thursday over “statements by US officials on their plans to develop and deploy medium-range missiles”.
Moscow and Beijing want to convene the 15-member council under the agenda item “threats to international peace and security” and have requested that UN disarmament affairs chief Izumi Nakamitsu brief the body, according to a request obtained by Reuters news agency.
US Defense Secretary Mark Esper was asked in an interview on Fox News on Wednesday whether the test was aimed at sending a message to China, Russia or North Korea and indicated that the main concern was China.
Mark Esper stated at his visit to Australia this month that “We want to make sure that we, need to, have the capability to deter Chinese bad behavior by having our own capability to be able to strike at intermediate ranges”.
Esper was also asked about a rocket test accident in Russia this month which US officials believe was associated with the Kremlin’s hypersonic cruise missile programme.
“Clearly they are trying to expand their strategic nuclear arsenal to deal with the United States,” he said, adding that all such new weapons would have to be included in any future strategic arms reduction treaty.
“Right now Russia has possibly nuclear-tipped … INF-range cruise missiles facing toward Europe, and that’s not a good thing,” he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday the US was in a position to deploy a new land-based cruise missile in Romania and Poland, a scenario he considered a threat that Moscow would need to respond to.
The US has said it has no imminent plans to deploy new land-based missiles in Europe.
However China was not a party to the treaty and has a large arsenal of land-based intermediate-range missiles.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said on Tuesday that the US test showed that Washington was stoking a new arms race and confrontation, which would have a serious negative effect on regional and global security.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon has announced that effective on Thursday it is pulling the plug on a billion-dollar, technically troubled project to build a better weapon that would destroy incoming missiles.
