Russia and China Slam Away at the U.S. Deployment of BMD Systems

PRESS RELEASE

Russia and China Slam Away at the U.S. Deployment of BMD Systems

Oct. 14, 2017 (EIRNS)—At a Russian-Chinese briefing on missile shield issues on the sidelines of the first committee of the UN General Assembly, TASS reported Oct. 13, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Alexander Yemelyano said that

"radar stations of the U.S. missile attack warning system cover all possible trajectories of Russian ballistic missiles launched toward the U.S. territory. Those stations are capable of tracking the launch of intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-based ballistic missiles and designate targets for anti-ballistic missile systems for intercepting those ballistic missiles,"

Yemelyanov noted. He also reiterated the Russian view that supposedly defensive European-based Aegis and other BMD systems "can be re-equipped with cruise missiles covertly and promptly. In this case, cruise missiles will target the entire territory of European Russia."

Part of the Russian military delegation to the United Nations briefing was apparently denied visas by the U.S. According to Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova,

"now they seem to have decided that Russian experts should not attend the briefing held at the UN on strategic stability threatened by the U.S. global anti-missile defense system, which is not at all defensive."

The deployment of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) systems in South Korea was similarly denounced at that UN briefing by China’s Defense Ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. Zhou Shangping: "The deployment of the THAAD systems to the Republic of Korea is a serious blow to the strategic interests of China, Russia, and other countries."

An Oct. 13 article in Sputnik elaborated on the THAAD threat to the two countries, reporting that Georgiy Borisenko, Director of the North American Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, stated on Oct. 11 that the THAAD system is actually meant to target Russia and China, not North Korea—a view repeatedly stated by Russian officials. Chinese expert Da Zhingang, from the Heilongjian Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, also emphasized to Sputnik that

"the Russian Foreign Ministry stated clearly that this step is aimed against China and Russia, expressing a common position with Beijing. It would be natural if the countries take joint countermeasures,"

he warned. "In this regard, China and Russia can bolster cooperation in political, diplomatic, economic and military spheres."

A third expert quoted by Sputnik, Russian military analyst Vladimir Evseev, commented that he assumed that the THAAD issue would be discussed at the upcoming 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. "In particular, [the congress] may mull over taking military-technical measures to overcome this challenge," according to Evseev.