U.S. and Russia Accuse Each Other of Arms Race

At the UN Security Council session, an American diplomat explained the testing of a new missile as a threat of Moscow and Beijing. At an emergency session of the UN Security Council in New York, which was convened on Thursday, August 22 at the request of Moscow and Beijing, Russian, American and Chinese diplomats argued about each other’s nuclear weapons threats. Speaking at a briefing, Russian Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Dmitry Polyanskiy said that after the Americans withdrew from the Treaty on the Elimination of Medium and Short Range Missiles (INF Treaty), the Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms – START III – was also threatened. According to him, Washington has repeatedly made it clear that they were not interested in maintaining this agreement in its current form. In addition, he said that because of the U.S.’s geopolitical ambitions the world is one step from an arms race that cannot be controlled or regulated in any way. The United States is seeking unilateral military advantages through withdrawal from the INF Treaty, China’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Zhang Jun said at a meeting of the Security Council. According to him, this withdrawal pursues unilateral goals and represents the U.S. withdrawal from the fulfillment of international obligations. American diplomat: Moscow and Beijing actions erode security fundamentals In turn, the acting U.S. ambassador to the UN, Jonathan Cohen, said the United States intended to develop and test missile systems previously prohibited by the INF Treaty, noting threats of Moscow and Beijing. He pointed out that the actions of Russia and China lead to the erosion of the foundations of security, and the United States does not intend to ignore this situation. “We will not sit back and take the necessary measures to ensure the safety and security of our allies, it provides for the development and testing of systems for countering the threats we face,” - said Cohen. August 18, the Pentagon tested a cruise missile, which hit a target at a distance of over 500 km. The INF Treaty had barred the possession, production or flight-testing of all types of missiles with a range between 500 kilometers to 5,500 kilometers. The Pentagon specified that tests of the Tomahawk cruise missile were tested. In addition, the US Department of Defense plans to test a ground-based ballistic missile similar to the Pershing-2 missile in November. All missiles of this class were destroyed by 1991 in accordance with the provisions of the INF Treaty. The United States and Russia completed their exit from the INF Treaty on August 2. The reason for the termination of the treaty was, according to Washington, Russian violating of missile development. In particular, it was noted that the possible range of the Russian missile 9M729 is greater than that provided for in the agreement. Moscow calls these allegations unfounded and blames the United States for the failure of all attempts to maintain the INF Treaty. DW