The surge in tension between Russia and the US following the conflict in Ukraine also threatens to trigger a new missile arms race. Vladimir Putin has in fact announced the intention to resume production of short- and medium-range launchers in response to similar initiatives by the US, which since 2019 withdrew from the INF Treaty, signed in 1987 between Washington and Moscow, which banned such weapons. “We apparently need to start producing these weapon systems and then, based on the real situation, make decisions on where to deploy them, if it is necessary to ensure our security,” Putin said at a Security Council meeting, after Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Defense Minister Andrei Belousov had outlined the situation in their reports.
It was then US President Donald Trump who decided to abandon the INF Treaty five years ago, citing alleged violations by Moscow, which he denied. Trump also justified the decision by citing the need to counter the possible deployment of missiles in the Pacific, including the South China Sea, by Beijing, which was not a signatory to the agreement. Moscow had said it would not deploy such launchers if the US did not do so first. But last April, General Charles Flynn, commander of US forces in the Pacific, announced that Washington intended to deploy such launchers in this region by the end of the year as a deterrent against China. “I will not discuss which system and I will not say where and when,” Flynn said in an interview with the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shinbun. “I can only say that there will be a long-range precision system deployed in the area where we are.”
According to Russia, the deployment of American missiles in the Asia-Pacific region could also threaten its territory. On May 30, Lavrov said that Moscow does not even rule out “further steps in the field of nuclear deterrence, because American missiles with advanced bases will be able to cover command posts and positions of Russian nuclear forces.” But now, Putin said at the Security Council meeting, “it has become known that the US has already brought these missile systems for exercises in Europe, in Denmark”. As for deployment to the Asia-Pacific region, the president said the country chosen by the United States is the Philippines.
The INF Treaty banned all American and Russian land-launched ballistic and cruise missiles, both nuclear and conventional, with a range of 500 to 5,500 kilometers. Those launched from aircraft or the sea were not covered. By 1991, Moscow and Washington had eliminated nearly 2,700 of these missiles.
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