{"id":38548,"date":"2019-08-21T10:02:05","date_gmt":"2019-08-21T02:02:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=38548"},"modified":"2019-08-21T10:24:17","modified_gmt":"2019-08-21T02:24:17","slug":"russia-and-china-blast-us-missile-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=38548","title":{"rendered":"Russia and China blast US missile test"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

MOSCOW\/BEIJING\/WASHINGTON, Aug 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Russia and China warned that a new US missile test had heightened military tensions and risked sparking an arms race, weeks after Washington ripped up a Cold War-era weapons pact with Moscow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US and Russia ditched the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF)
treaty this month after accusing each other of violating the accord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Washington said the agreement also tied its hands in dealing with other
powers such as China. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US Department of Defense announced on Monday it had tested a type of ground-launched missile that was banned under the 1987 INF agreement, which limited the use of nuclear and conventional medium-range weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe US has obviously taken a course towards escalation of military
tensions. We won\u2019t react to provocations,\u201d Russia\u2019s deputy foreign minister
Sergei Ryabkov told state news agency TASS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said the test showed Washington had been working on such missiles long before its official withdrawal from the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said: \u201cThis
measure from the US will trigger a new round of an arms race, leading to an escalation of military confrontation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He warned that the test \u201cwill have a serious negative impact on the
international and regional security situation\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The missile was launched from the US Navy-controlled San Nicolas Island
off the coast of California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking in France Monday before news of the US test launch broke,
President Vladimir Putin said Russia would only deploy medium- or shorter-range missiles in response to similar moves by the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf the United States produces such offensive systems, we will also do
so,\u201d Putin said at a press conference before meetings with French leader
Emmanuel Macron.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The missile tested on Sunday was a version of the nuclear-capable Tomahawk cruise missile. The ground-launched version of the Tomahawk was removed from service after the INF was ratified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this month Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said the US had already
begun work to develop \u201cmobile, conventional, ground-launched cruise and
ballistic missile systems\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNow that we have withdrawn, the Department of Defense will fully pursue
the development of these ground-launched conventional missiles as a prudent response to Russia\u2019s actions,\u201d Esper said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But he also insisted the US was not embarking on a new arms race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US launch came weeks after a deadly explosion at a
Russian testing site, which Western experts linked to Moscow\u2019s attempts to
develop a nuclear-powered missile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The blast killed five scientists and caused a spike in radiation levels,
although Russian authorities have remained tightlipped on the nature of the explosion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The INF banned all land-based missiles that could travel between 500 and
5,500 kilometres (310 and 3,400 miles) in an effort to abolish the class of
nuclear arms that then most threatened Europe. — NNN-AGENCIES
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MOSCOW\/BEIJING\/WASHINGTON, Aug 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Russia and China warned that a new US missile test had heightened military tensions and risked sparking an arms race, weeks after Washington ripped up a Cold War-era weapons pact with Moscow. The US and Russia ditched the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF)treaty this month after accusing each other of violating […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":34672,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208,215,209,297],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38548"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}