“Washington decides for Europe”: why the head of the Pentagon called Russia and China strategic US rivals

In the long run, Russia and China will remain the strategic rivals of the United States. Such a statement was made and. about. Pentagon chiefs Mark Esper during a press conference following the meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels.

“The US National Defense Strategy is still our directive document. It says that we are living in a new era of great power competition. Russia and China remain our competitors in the long term. Second: the task of the ministry (defense. - RT ) is still clear - to contain conflicts, and if necessary - to fight and win on the battlefield, ”said Esper.

The minister accused Russia of being allegedly the “instigator of aggression” in Europe and is trying to “gain power over its neighbors,” and also interferes in the sovereign democratic processes of these countries.

Esper also stated that Russia is conducting a “powerful campaign” to modernize its armed forces, including the improvement of the nuclear triad. In connection with this and. about. The Pentagon chiefs blamed Moscow for allegedly violating the Treaty on the Elimination of Shorter and Intermediate-Range Missiles (INF), making and deploying the 9M729 missile, which is why Washington and NATO must "take steps to counter this military potential."

According to him, keeping in mind the possible termination of the agreement, the United States is developing non-nuclear missiles with a "range of action stipulated by the INF Treaty", and also plan to strengthen the missile defense of the North Atlantic alliance to counter any types of Russian cruise missiles.

Esper added that consultations on this matter will continue in the near future, but noted that the United States does not plan to deploy in Europe new ground-based ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads.

Earlier, similar statements were made by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who called on Moscow to “return to the compliance with the INF Committee”. According to him, during the talks of high-ranking representatives of the Alliance and the meeting of the NATO Nuclear Planning Group, a “set of response measures" to contain Russia was agreed.

However, the United States was the first to withdraw from the INF Treaty.

In particular, Russian President Vladimir Putin recalled this in an interview with The Financial Times.

“Now, unilaterally, they have also actually withdrawn from the Treaty on Medium and Short-Range Missiles. Although this time they decided not just to go out, but to find the reason in the form of Russia, ”the president stressed.

“Justify the destruction of the collective security system”

Commenting on the latest statements by Mark Esper, the head of the Center for Political Information, Alexei Mukhin, in an interview with RT drew attention to the fact that now Washington is actually deciding for Europe whether new missile weapons will be deployed on its territory.

“The United States decides for Europe whether new missiles will be placed on its territory. This says a lot about the American perception of the sovereignty of European states, the expert noted. - The United States will now be barbarously accusing Russia of violating the INF. Our attempts to bring an evidence base did not lead to success and cannot lead, because the United States invented these violations to justify the abandonment of the INF and the destruction of the collective security system. ”

The expert added that in pursuit of his own goals, including re-election for a second term, US President Donald Trump systematically destroys existing international agreements, providing support to the US military-industrial complex. However, by such actions he actually “throws the world into the abyss of an arms race,” Mukhin is sure.

In turn, the military political scientist, head of the department of political science and sociology of the PRUE. Andrei Koshkin Plekhanov stated that the first visit of such a representative forum for Esper after taking office and. about. the head of the Pentagon demanded quite loud statements from him.

“All of them were made in the wake of that foreign policy line, which the White House and Trump marked, which had placed confidence in him and was waiting for his enchanting work. Enchanting work and began. Therefore, the first and most important thing is the repetition of those postulates that its president put forward, ”the expert noted.

The interlocutor RT added that in the current situation there is a certain contradiction: both Trump and Stoltenberg said that medium-range missiles will not be deployed in Europe, but at six American bases in non-nuclear European states there are updated versions of ammunition. And the control over these weapons is in Washington, the political analyst emphasized.

"This contradiction statement describes the foreign policy line that Washington pursues in Europe," said Koshkin.

“There is a certain build-up of military potential, which is not as rapid as it was during the Cold War, but there is a tendency towards insignificant, but increasing expansion. This is connected with the policy aimed at the economic restraint of the European states and so that they would in no way deploy the European army, ”the expert concluded.