• Cold War: A key pact for the control of atomic weaponry

The test with a cruise missile carried out by the US has unleashed the reactions of Russia and China, who have warned that the test will revive the arms race. This was deplored on Tuesday by the Chinese government, which has warned against "an escalation of military clashes." Russia, for its part, has condemned the trial, which occurs less than three weeks after the short and medium-range missile elimination (INF) Treaty was suspended.

The test conducted by the United States on Sunday night off the coast of California "will have serious negative consequences for regional and international security , " Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters, according to Afp. The launch "proves that the real objective of the US withdrawal [from the INF Treaty] was to move towards missile development and fight for unilateral military superiority," Geng insisted.

In very similar terms to those employed shortly before by Russia, the Chinese spokesman has estimated that Washington's gesture was to "revive the arms race and lead to an escalation of military confrontations, which will have serious negative consequences for regional and international security. ".

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that "these tests show once again that from the beginning the Americans sought the suspension of the INF," he said Tuesday through Kremlin spokesman Dimitri Peskov to the media. "This confirms once again that it was not Russia, but precisely the United States that led with its actions to the end of the INF", the first Cold War disarmament treaty , underlined, according to Efe.

The Pentagon announced Monday night that it carried out a test with a cruise missile, which was launched from a mobile land shuttle on the island of San Nicolas, in California, and hit more than 500 kilometers . The essay coincided with the meeting held yesterday by French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Riabkov has expressed his "alarm" over Washington's intentions to "expand the destabilizing potential" in the sphere of medium-range missiles that until recently was "firmly" regulated. The diplomat has also shown serious doubts that the US could have prepared the test with the missile in such a "short period of time." "At that time carrying it out (the essay) is practically impossible, unless they prepared it in advance," he said. In his opinion, this would demonstrate that the White House prepared for a "long time" its resignation from the treaty , not only from the propaganda point of view, but also "military" and "technical."

Riabkov also recalled that Putin insisted yesterday against Macron that Russia will continue to respect the moratorium on the deployment of short and medium range missiles , as long as the US does the same. Shortly after the INF expired, Putin called on the United States to resume "without delay" negotiations to ensure global stability and security. But the US abandoned the treaty, citing Moscow's refusal to destroy the Novator 9M729 cruise missile (SSC-8, according to NATO classification), which allegedly violated the treaty by having a range of more than 500 kilometers. For his part, Putin stressed that the "unilateral abandonment, with an invented pretext" of the US INF "seriously" complicates the situation in the world and has created "fundamental risks for all."

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