US Justifies Supremacy Bid By Accusing Russia, China Of Undermining Space Peace - Beijing

By accusing Russia and China of creating threats in space, Washington justifies its aspiration to gain military supremacy and develop advanced weapons, the Chinese Foreign Ministry's spokesman, Geng Shuang, said on Wednesday

BEIJING (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th March, 2019) By accusing Russia and China of creating threats in space, Washington justifies its aspiration to gain military supremacy and develop advanced weapons, the Chinese Foreign Ministry's spokesman, Geng Shuang, said on Wednesday.

Yleem Poblete, US assistant secretary of state for arms control, verification and compliance, said a day earlier at the UN Conference on Disarmament that Russia and China were developing ground-based missiles able to target low-Earth-orbit satellites.

"In fact, they [the United States] are just trying to find a pretext [to justify] its aspirations to establish unilateral military supremacy and to carry out research and develop advanced weapons," Geng said at a briefing, commenting on Poblete's statement.

He slammed the United States for its baseless accusations against Russia and China.

"I would like to remind you that this is the United States that turns space into a new battlefield. It has already set up the headquarters of the Space Force and is now in the process of the Space Force creation. It also plans to station laser weapons in space. You don't even have to point out who exacerbates the risk of space militarization and weaponization and jeopardizes space security," Geng added.

US President Donald Trump signed on February 20 a directive that ordered the Pentagon to establish US Space Force that would operate as the sixth branch of Armed Forces.

The chief of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, accused Washington on March 2 of seeking to use outer space for military purposes, adding that Russia would have to respond to possible threats.