ASIATODAY.ID, MOSCOW – Russia’s upcoming exercises to test its tactical nuclear weapons should be viewed in light of the “belligerent statements” made by some Western officials and NATO’s “destabilizing actions,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday.
Earlier in the day, Moscow announced plans to test its military’s ability to deploy tactical nuclear weapons. The exercises, which were ordered by President Vladimir Putin, will be held in the near future, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
According to the Foreign Ministry, the move was a response to the continued “power politics” pursued by the US and its allies against Russia. Washington and Kiev’s other backers openly declare their support for Ukrainian “terrorist acts” and “directly contribute” to such attacks, the statement read, pointing to the continued supply of ever more powerful Western weapons to Ukraine. It particularly drew attention to the US-made ATACMS missiles capable of “striking targets deep inside Russian territory.”
Last week, former UK prime minister and current Foreign Secretary David Cameron stated that Kiev had every right to use British weapons to strike targets inside Russia as well.
The US has also created new threats to Russia’s national security through deployment of its intermediate-range ground-based missile systems around the world, the ministry said. Such weapons were banned under the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), but Washington unilaterally withdrew from the agreement in 2019.
The move left Russia with no choice but to leave the treaty as well. However, Moscow introduced a moratorium on fielding weapons that used to be covered by the treaty. Russia now reserves the right to a “mirror response” to American actions, the ministry said, adding that the moratorium could be lifted.
Moscow also slammed statements by French President Emmanuel Macron about a potential NATO troop deployment to Ukraine. “This cannot be perceived in any other way than a demonstration of the readiness and willingness to enter a direct military confrontation with Russia,” the ministry warned.
Last week, Macron said that Western nations would have to consider such an option if Kiev officially requested it. “Such actions of the NATO member states show that they deliberately strive for further escalation of the Ukraine crisis towards a direct military clash between NATO and Russia,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
France and EU pressuring China over Russia
French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen have urged Chinese leader Xi Jinping to limit his country’s cooperation with Russia in light of the Ukraine conflict.
Coordination with Beijing on “major crises,” including Ukraine and the Middle East, is “absolutely decisive,” Macron said at the beginning of trilateral talks at the Elysee Palace in Paris on Monday.
The goal of the meeting is to express “both our shared positions and our concerns, to try to overcome them, because the future of our continent will very clearly also depend on our ability to develop balanced relations with China,” he said.
In his opening remarks, Xi said that in the current “period of turbulence and change” globally “two important forces in the world, China and Europe should… continuously make new contributions to world peace and development.” Beijing approaches its ties with the EU from “a strategic and long-term perspective,” hoping that they will help both sides “thrive,” the Chinese leader, who will also visit Hungary and Serbia as part of his European tour, added.
During a press conference after the meeting, Von der Leyen said that Brussels and Paris are counting on Beijing to “use all its influence on Russia” to stop the conflict with Ukraine. The EU chief also said that she and Macron urged Xi to make “more efforts to limit the delivery to Russia of dual-use equipment.”
The US and its European allies claim that Chinese-made circuitry, aircraft parts, and machine tools have been helping Moscow boost its military industrial capacity.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who visited Beijing in late April, warned that Washington was ready to introduce more sanctions against China if it does not stop sales of dual-use goods to Russia.
However, a few days later the Chinese Foreign Ministry insisted that China’s right to economic cooperation with Russia or any other country “should not be interfered with or disrupted.”
Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said that Beijing is a “close partner” of Moscow and that it is going to keep boosting relations with China further.
In an article for the French paper Le Figaro on Thursday, Xi stressed that China was “neither a party to nor a participant” in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, but that it was willing to work with the international community to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis. (RT/AT Network)
Check out other news and articles at Google News and WA Channel
Discussion about this post