China warns of US plans to deploy ballistic missiles in Asia-Pacific
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Beijing declares that Washington's decision to install medium-range ballistic missiles poses a serious danger to the stability and peace in the region.
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The US Air Force, in partnership with the Strategic Capabilities Office, conducts a flight test of a prototype conventionally-configured, ground-launched ballistic missile from Vandenberg AFB, California On December 12, 2019. (Social media)
China slammed on Thursday the United States' decision to deploy ballistic missiles in the Asia-Pacific region, and announced that it will be taking resolute countermeasures.
Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson Wu Qian told reporters that his country "strongly opposes the deployment of US intermediate-range missiles in the Asia-Pacific region, this position is clear and consistent."
He also warned that Washington's move poses a serious threat to the stability and peace in the region.
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A US Army Pacific spokesperson told Sputnik earlier this month that the US is working to deploy a medium-range missile system in the Asia-Pacific by the end of 2024.
China's US embassy said in early April that the US must refrain from introducing bloc confrontation, conflict, and turmoil to the Asia-Pacific, confirming that "China is firmly opposed to it."
Russia also expressed deep concern regarding the United States' move.
'Russia must respond'
The US plans to deploy the systems in the Asia-Pacific region would mark the first instance of such a move since Washington and Moscow inked the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 1987, but both countries withdrew from the Treaty in 2019.
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Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov expressed concerns on Thursday, saying that the "US’ determination to acquire such potential and use it within the framework of the concept of dual deterrence is irreversible."
"As it was recently discussed during the visit of Russian Foreign Minister [Sergey Lavrov] to Beijing, we must respond to double containment with double counteraction. One of the points of such counteraction will undoubtedly be a revision of our approach to the unilateral moratorium on the deployment of such systems announced in 2018 by our president [Vladimir Putin]," he told reporters on April 11.
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