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Russia says US missile test ‘escalation of military tensions’
MOSCOW, Aug 20, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Moscow on Tuesday said the United States
was ramping up military tensions by testing a medium-range cruise missile
weeks after tearing up a pact with Russia.
“This is all a cause of regret. The US has obviously taken a course
towards escalation of military tensions. We won’t react to provocations,”
Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov told state news agency TASS.
The US announced on Monday that it had tested a type of ground-launched
missile that was banned under the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces
(INF) treaty with the Soviet Union.
The missile was launched from the US Navy-controlled San Nicolas Island
off the coast of California.
The launch was a sign of Washington beefing up its capabilities in the
wake of the collapse of the INF on August 2.
Many fear the end of the INF, which Washington accused Moscow of having
violated in recent years, will lead to a new and dangerous nuclear arms race.
“We will not allow ourselves to get drawn into a costly arms race,”
Ryabkov said.
He added that Moscow would stick to a unilateral moratorium on such
missile systems “if and when we get them, as long as the US does not deploy
them anywhere in the world”.
The INF banned all land-based missiles, conventional and nuclear, that
could travel between 500 and 5,500 kilometres (310 and 3,400 miles), in an
effort to abolish the class of nuclear arms that then most threatened Europe.
The missile tested on Sunday was a version of the nuclear-capable Tomahawk
cruise missile. The ground-launched version of the Tomahawk was removed from
service after the INF was ratified.
Ryabkov said that the test, just over two weeks after the US withdrew from
the treaty, showed that it had been working on such missiles for a long time
ahead of the withdrawal.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1400 hrs