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US Successful with Missile Defence test, Russia and China critical
Amsterdam, July 16, 2001.
Just days before the second trip to Europe of President Bush to the G7 summit in Italy the United States army tested successfully on the 15th of July a Missile Defence system.
It will be the first in a series of tests to be able to build a system that can intercept enemy missiles of all types.
Russia and China have criticized the move. They said the US is risking a new arms race.
Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko asked; "Why should the entire architecture of agreements in nuclear disarmament and non- proliferation, and its cornerstone, the 1972 ABM treaty, be put under threat?"
He added to his statement that there is room "for an early and substantive dialogue with the U.S. on the START [treaty] and ABM problems".
US Deputy Secretary of Defence Wolfowitz said in a testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee that "it will not undermine arms control or spark an arms race. If anything, building effective defenses will reduce the value of ballistic missiles, and thus remove incentives for their development and proliferation. Since they will have virtually no effect on Russia’s capabilities, there is no incentive for Russia to spend scarce resources to try to overcome them.
And China is already engaged in a rapid modernization of its missile capabilities, and will continue this modernization whether or not we build missile defenses.
To the contrary, the Russians and the Chinese will be able to see that we are reducing our offensive nuclear forces substantially and there is no need for them to build up theirs. In this budget proposal alone, with Peacekeeper, Trident, and B-1 reductions, we will be reducing START-countable warheads by over 1000. We plan to reduce our nuclear forces no matter what Russia decides to do, but we believe it is in their best interest to follow the same path."
The Bush team stresses in multiple statements that the Cold
War is over. That the Cold War thinking is obsolete and an anachronism. That Russia is not an enemy.
Missile Defence serves other purposes. According to the Bush team it is to prevent so called "rogue states" like Iraq, North Korea, Iran and Libya, that invest in missile systems that can harm the United states, its Allies and friends, and its forces worldwide.
The Bush team fears that they will be able to blackmail in times of crisis the US in pursuing its policies.
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