• Tweeter

  • republish

New Secretary of Defense Mark Esper at the White House in Washington, July 23, 2019. REUTERS / Leah Millis

Friday, the United States came out of the treaty of nuclear disarmament between Russia and the United States concluded during the Cold War. A symbolic act that could revive an arms race, especially since Saturday, the head of the Pentagon announced wanting to position missiles in Asia.

In office for less than three weeks, US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper is already making a major announcement: he plans to install medium-range missiles in Asia, reports our Houston correspondent, Thomas Harms.

For the moment it is only a declaration of intentions. Their location has not yet been clarified, especially as discussions with US allies in the region have not begun. And the implementation of this type of missile could take long months, even years.

" We would like to do it as soon as possible," says Mark Esper. Develop these capabilities and ensure that we will be able to fire long-range missiles not only in this theater of operations, but for others where we also plan to deploy, because of the large distances we have to cover. "

But while Donald Trump has announced a 10% increase in tariffs vis-à-vis Chinese imports, the statement of the Pentagon boss is fearing a renewed tension, and anger of Beijing.

Indeed, China but also North Korea fiercely and long opposed the deployment of US military equipment near their border.

Mark Esper, however, assures that the Chinese authorities will not react badly: " Let's be very clear. I am talking about conventional weapons, intermediate range. That should not be a surprise, because we've been talking about it for a while. I would like to point out that 80% of China's arsenal is made up of INF-type weapons. It should not be surprising that we wanted similar capabilities. Once again what we want is to prevent a conflict, and diplomatically : to compete with China and other countries in the economic field, "he concluded.

Mark Esper began a tour of Asia Pacific with a visit to Australia with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Bilateral discussions with their counterparts are planned.

► See also: United States steps out of INF disarmament treaty with Russia