Russia: US Missile Defense Could Embolden Washington To Use Preemptive Nukes
By James Holbrooks
ActivistPost.com
OCTOBER 13, 2016
On Tuesday, while attending a security conference in China, officials from both the Russian and Chinese militaries confirmed the two countries are combining efforts to counter the expansion of the United States’ missile defense system, reports the Associated Press.
Russia and China are now “working together on ways to minimize the possible damage to the security of our countries,” Lieutenant General Viktor Poznikhir of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff said Tuesday, warning the “illusion of invulnerability and impunity” the U.S. has regarding its missile defense system “would encourage Washington to take unilateral steps in dealing with global and regional issues.”
This, argued Poznikhir on Tuesday, could lead to Washington “lowering the threshold of nuclear weapons use to preempt enemy actions.”
The United States’ missile defense system, which consists of individual units strategically deployed within U.S.-friendly borders around the planet — in Europe and the South Pacific, particularly — has long been, and still very much is, a point of concern for Russia and China, as Bloomberg recently explained:
In May, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that placing parts of the system in Romania and Poland — once Soviet satellites — is threatening peace in Europe and warned that it may trigger a new arms race. China described the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system as an ‘out-and-out strategic’ move that threatens its national security, warning about taking ‘necessary measure to safeguard’ its interests. The plan has already soured ties with South Korea.
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