US Missile Defense Review Threatens Talks With Russia, China - Arms Control Group

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th January, 2019) The 2019 Missile Defense Review advocates destabilizing policies that the United States should reject and concentrate instead on negotiating strategic stability with Russia and China, the Arms Control Association (ACA) said in a new paper.

"[T]he United States should pursue wide-ranging dialogues with Russia and China on strategic stability, including the impact of missile defense, and forswear particularly destabilizing steps, such as pursuing space-based interceptors," the ACA said in the paper that was published on Thursday.

The Trump administration should also scrap the testing of SM-3 Block IIA interceptors against intercontinental ballistic missiles, the paper, "Trump's Dangerous Missile Defense Buildup," said.

The Missile Defense Review "proposes a significant and costly expansion of ... US missile defenses that is likely to exacerbate Russian and Chinese concerns about the threat to their strategic nuclear deterrents, undermine strategic stability and further complicate the prospects for additional nuclear arms reductions, the ACA said.

President Donald Trump's statement that the goal of US missile defenses was to detect and destroy any missile launched against the United States anywhere would be costly, unachievable and destabilizing, the ACA added.