Moscow is considering deploying medium- and shorter-range missiles to Asia should similar U.S. armaments appear in the region, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov has said.
“Of course, this is one of the options that has also been repeatedly mentioned. The appearance of such U.S. systems in any region of the world will determine our next steps, including in the field of organizing a military and military-technical response,” Ryabkov said, according to Russian state news.
“As before, what is happening depends entirely on the choice that our opponents will make at this extremely alarming, very dangerous moment, and on the line that they will pursue.”
It comes amid reports that the U.S. is planning to deploy missiles to Japan’s southwestern islands and the Philippines if a major crisis unfolds between China and Taiwan, Japan’s Kyodo News reported on Monday.
A Russian Iskander missile at an undisclosed location in Ukraine earlier this year. Russia’s deputy foreign minister has said the country is considering deploying medium- and shorter-range missiles to Asia should U.S. weaponry appear there. A Russian Iskander missile at an undisclosed location in Ukraine earlier this year. Russia’s deputy foreign minister has said the country is considering deploying medium- and shorter-range missiles to Asia should U.S. weaponry appear there. Russian Defense Ministry Press Service/AP
Admiral Samuel Paparo, the head of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, also said last week that China had staged the biggest military rehearsal for an invasion of Taiwan he had seen in his career this year.
“This included on one particular day 152 vessels at sea (…} This was the largest rehearsal we’ve seen on an upward trajectory of PLA [People’s Liberation Army] modernization,” he said at the Brookings Institution in Washington D.C.
Newsweek contacted the Department of Defense for comment via email.
The Chinese Ministry of Defense, Philippines Armed Forces and the Japanese Ministry of Defense were also all contacted via email.
Ryabkov also said on Monday that Russia’s moratorium on the deployment of intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles depended on the actions of the U.S.
He added that Russia faced no restrictions on deploying its new Oreshnik medium-range ballistic missile under existing obligations. The weapon was fired on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro for the first time last week.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin previously warned the U.S. that it would station missiles in striking distance of the West if it deploys long-range missiles in Germany from 2026.
“The flight time to targets on our territory of such missiles, which in the future may be equipped with nuclear warheads, will be about 10 minutes,” Putin said in a speech in St. Petersburg in July.
“We will take mirror measures to deploy, taking into account the actions of the United States, its satellites in Europe and in other regions of the world.”
Putin also said last week that the U.S. decision in 2019 to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty was a “mistake.”
“We believe that the United States made a mistake by unilaterally destroying the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 2019 under a far-fetched pretext,” he said, according to the TASS news agency.
The INF Treaty, signed by the U.S. and Russia in 1989 toward the end of the Cold War, banned missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers (310 and 3,400 miles). During Donald Trump’s first term in office, the U.S. and NATO allies accused Russia of violating the treaty and the Washington subsequently announced its withdrawal.
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