Risk Of Nuclear Arms Race Growing In Wake Of Latest US Missile Test - Think Tank

Marc Finaud, the head of Arms Proliferation at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, warned in a comment to Sputnik on Tuesday of the consequences of the accelerating nuclear arms race in the wake of the United States testing a medium-range cruise missile that was banned under the now-abandoned US-Russia nuclear treaty

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th August, 2019) Marc Finaud, the head of Arms Proliferation at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, warned in a comment to Sputnik on Tuesday of the consequences of the accelerating nuclear arms race in the wake of the United States testing a medium-range cruise missile that was banned under the now-abandoned US-Russia nuclear treaty.

"There is no doubt that if the US deploys new intermediate-range missiles in Europe or Asia, Russia and China will respond with their own deployments. The increased risk is that the use of conventional missiles could be mistaken for a nuclear attack and lead to a global nuclear war. Instead of an arms race, what is needed is an arms control race," Finaud said.

According to the expert, the nuclear arms race began to accelerate after the United States pulled out of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002 and US-NATO defensive missile systems were deployed to Europe, the latter of which could potentially be seen as a threat to Russia.

"It [the US missile test] was not a surprise since the Pentagon had requested funding in 2019 and 2020 for developing new intermediate-range conventional missiles in response to the alleged violation of the INF [Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces] Treaty by Russia," Finaud stressed.

The Kremlin said the US missile test proved that Washington had long been working to undermine the INF Treaty.

In February, the United States formally suspended its obligations under the INF Treaty, which required that the United States and Russia eliminate and permanently forswear all nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers (310-3,417 miles). This triggered a six-month withdrawal process, which was completed on August 2. As a response to Washington's actions, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree in July suspending his country's participation in the accord. This came after both sides accused each other multiple times of violating the INF.