The Cold War might be over, but the US-Russia tug-of-war for global supremacy is still up and kicking. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov asserted that the US plans to deploy missile defence systems in space will only lead to arms between the nations. Lavrov was speaking at the session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of BRICS nations.
“We are concerned over the US plans to deploy weapons in space that are already being implemented. This will lead to another qualitative stage of an arms race,” Lavrov said. “As you know, Russia and China have already presented a draft proposal on preventing deployment of weapons in space at the disarmament conference in Geneva.
We appreciate it that BRICS nations support annual resolutions on this pressing issue at UN General Assembly sessions,” he added.
The Russian foreign minister said that international security is especially imperilled by increasing defence budgets of several countries (referring to the US) and deterioration of the decades-long architecture of strategic stability.
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“Troubling instances are US efforts to break down the missile defence treaty and New START [Strategic Nuclear Reduction Treaty]. Ambiguity also continues to develop around the INF [Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces] Treaty. We have suggested to extend it but have not heard a response from Washington yet,” Lavrov concluded.
Earlier, as EurAsian Times reported earlier, the US is eyeing space-based laser weapons technology as the ultimate answer to defeat a missile threat in its boost phase of flight. The strategy would lay out the plans of the Missile Defense Agency, the U.S. Air Force and other agencies “to develop a space-based sensor layer for ballistic missile defence that provides precision tracking data of missiles beginning in the boost phase and continuing throughout subsequent flight regimes; serves other intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance requirements; and achieves an operational prototype payload at the earliest practicable opportunity”.
