The US will station long-range missiles in Germany from 2026 onwards, the governments of both countries have announced. These weapons, including the SM-6 and Tomahawk systems, were banned on the continent until Washington tore up a landmark Cold War-era treaty in 2019.
According to a joint statement published by the White House, the US will “begin episodic deployments of the long-range fires capabilities of its Multi-Domain Task Force in Germany in 2026, as part of planning for enduring stationing of these capabilities in the future”, RT reported.
The statement was released following talks between American and German officials at NATO’s annual summit in Washington on Wednesday.
Moscow will develop a military strategy to counter the threat from the Pentagon’s plans to deploy long-range weapons in Germany, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said.
"We will develop a military response to the new threat calmly, with a cool head," the senior diplomat told reporters on the sidelines of the 10th BRICS Parliamentary Forum.
According to Ryabkov, US plans to deploy missiles in Germany seek to weaken Russia’s security, to say nothing of the impact this will have on any future negotiations.
"I believe that it’s just a link in the chain of escalation, an intimidation tactic, which is pretty much the bedrock of the policy that NATO and the US pursue towards Russia these days. We will work out a reaction in a calm and professional manner," the diplomat noted.
He also ruled out any repeat of what happened during the Cold War, when a dual decision from NATO on missile deployment eventually led to talks on their elimination.
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Russia’s response to deployment of US missiles in German will be harsh and adequate, Federal Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko said in an interview with journalist Pavel Zarubin.
ReplyDelete"I hope that it will not happen, because Russia’s response will be harsh and adequate. This is simply unacceptable. If we raise all post-War documents, Germany has no right at all to accommodate weapons of this kind, according to the signed agreements," the senior lawmaker said.
Long-range US missiles are to be deployed periodically in Germany from 2026 for the first time since the Cold War, in a decision announced at Nato's 75th anniversary summit.
ReplyDeleteThe Tomahawk cruise, SM-6 and hypersonic missiles have a significantly longer range than existing missiles, the US and Germany said in a joint statement.
Such missiles would have been banned under a 1988 treaty between the US and former Soviet Union, but the pact fell apart five years ago.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Moscow would react with a "military reponse to the new threat".
"This is just a link in the chain of a course of escalation," he argued, accusing Nato and the US of trying to intimidate Russia.