The Pentagon-published review report on national missile defense policy raises serious concern because of its frankly confrontational nature and the desire of the United States to secure "undivided military primacy in the world" and "the ability to conduct military operations with impunity" anywhere in the world. This is stated in the comments of the Information and Press Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia.

As diplomats noted, the new document continues the course chosen by the Donald Trump administration in national security strategy and nuclear doctrine.

“We consider it necessary to especially emphasize that the appearance of such documents as the Review of the US policy in the field of antimissile defense once again demonstrates the need to immediately resume a full-fledged Russian-American dialogue on the whole range of issues related to arms control and strengthening international security and stability. We are ready for such a conversation. Our proposals on this matter were transferred to the United States back in July last year. They still remain unanswered, ”the message says.

The Russian Foreign Ministry called on Washington to show "political will" and "until it is too late" with a serious mindset to approach the joint search for ways to solve the accumulated problems in the strategic sphere.

The day before, US President Donald Trump, in a meeting with military personnel in Arlington, Virginia, along with Vice President Mike Pence, presented the updated US strategy for missile defense development. The document notes that the opponents of the country are Russia and China, which possess hypersonic armament and modernized cruise missiles, as well as "rogue countries" North Korea and Iran.

"Our strategy is based on one main task: to detect and destroy any type of rocket attacks on any American object before or after launch," Trump said.

  • US President Donald Trump
  • Reuters
  • © Kevin Lamarque

The Information and Press Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry paid special attention to this part of the speech by the head of the White House. And they noted that in Washington they are trying to “exalt” the application of preventive strikes on the territories of the adversary countries. Russian diplomats recalled that such logic was the basis of a large-scale nuclear-missile arms race, which repeatedly put the world "on the brink of disaster."

“Despite tense political and diplomatic efforts over several decades, its (arms race. - RT ) consequences have not been completely eliminated so far. Now, it seems, the American leadership again decided to attack the same rake - and with the same predictable consequences, ”the report underlines.

The actions of the American side, undoubtedly, are of serious concern to the entire international community, said Vladimir Batiuk, chief researcher at the Institute for the USA and Canada.

“On the one hand, it is the undermining of agreements on disarmament, withdrawal from the ABM Treaty, from the INF Treaty. On the other hand, a new round of the arms race. In this review, the United States announced an increase in the number of antimissiles, designed to intercept strategic warheads: they now have 44 such systems, will be 64. This is not a very big increase, but the trend is alarming. And all this is happening against the background of the dismantling of the arms control mechanism, which cannot but cause concern, ”the expert explained in an interview with RT.

Along the path of Reagan

The plans for the development of the space segment of the US missile defense system have caused “particular concern” to Moscow, since Washington is actually giving the green light to the prospect of deploying strike weapons in space designed to hit various types of missiles at the acceleration stage of flight.

As stressed in the Russian Foreign Ministry, the implementation of such initiatives will be the start of an “arms race in outer space,” which will have extremely negative consequences for international security and stability.

“We would like to urge the US administration to come to its senses and still abandon such irresponsible attempts to restart the ever-memorable Reagan Star Wars program at a new, higher technological level,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a comment.

Recall that in 1983, the 40th President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, in his address to the nation, announced the creation of a “Strategic Defense Initiative” - a global missile defense system capable of protecting the United States from a nuclear strike by the “evil empire”, which THE USSR.

According to Konstantin Blokhin, a leading researcher at the Center for Security Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the administration of Donald Trump uses Reagan’s methods - imposing an arms race, sanctions policy, and supporting opposition structures to undermine statehood.

“According to the main goals and objectives, this new program is“ Star Wars 2.0 ”. All that was voiced by Washington is not the nearest goals, these are medium-term and long-term goals, it’s impossible to accomplish all these tasks right away, for this we need an even bigger military budget and other technological capabilities, ”the expert emphasized.

At the same time, he also pointed out that Washington is now openly announcing "the containment of China and Russia."

“If earlier Washington’s construction of missile defense systems was positioned as a containment of the threat posed by Iran or North Korea, now the masks are broken, Washington openly declares that the main opponents are Russia and China,” said Blokhin in an interview with RT.