Thu 22 August 2019:
Russia and China have asked the United Nations Security Council to meet on Thursday over “statements by US officials on their plans to develop and deploy medium-range missiles.”
Moscow and Beijing want to convene the 15-member council under the agenda item “threats to international peace and security” and have requested that UN disarmament affairs chief Izumi Nakamitsu brief the body, according to a request obtained by Reuters news agency.
On Monday, the United States defence department announced that it had tested a conventionally configured cruise missile that hit its target after more than 500km of flight, the first such test since the United States pulled out Cold War-era Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF).
US Defense Secretary Mark Esper was asked in a Fox News Channel interview on Wednesday whether the test was aimed at sending a message to China, Russia or North Korea and indicated that the main concern was China.
“We want to make sure that we, as we need to, have the capability to deter Chinese bad behaviour by having our own capability to be able to strike at intermediate ranges,” he said.
Esper said on a visit to Australia this month he was in favour of placing ground-launched, intermediate-range missiles in Asia relatively soon.
Esper was also asked about a rocket test accident in Russia this month which US officials believe was associated with the Kremlin’s hypersonic cruise missile program.
“Clearly they are trying to expand their strategic nuclear arsenal to deal with the United States,” he said, adding that all such new weapons would have to be included in any future strategic arms reduction treaty.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon has announced that effective on Thursday it is pulling the plug effective on a billion-dollar, technically troubled project to build a better weapon that would destroy incoming missiles.
The Pentagon had spent nearly US$1.2bn on the project when Michael Griffin, the undersecretary of defence for research and engineering, decided last week to end it. In May he had ordered Boeing to stop its work, pending a decision on a way forward.
“Ending the programme was the responsible thing to do,” Griffin said in a statement Wednesday.
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