Moscow is reaffirming its “negative and extreme mood” as regards the U.S. and Japanese plans to create a regional anti-ballistic missile (ABM) defense system called “Theater of Military Actions (TMA).”
Russia “cannot help but be concerned about the serious strategic consequences for Russia should Washington and Tokyo implement such plans,” diplomatic sources in Moscow told Interfax on Friday. This is a project “very narrow in makeup” that, if realized, could be directed “against Russia and China,” sources said.
Moscow is also bothered by the fact that joint Japanese-U.S. research into the possibilities of designing an ABM TMA suggest that its basic elements could be based on warships, “which fits very well projects with the framework of U.S. plans to deploy a national ABM system [national missile defense, or NMD], sources said.
Moscow “perceives a real threat of an Japanese-American ABM TMA system being transformed into the forerunner of a future NMD, or an integral part of it.”
The Russian side is also “extremely concerned by the prospects of the American-Japanese projects in the field being joined by other countries and territories, in particular Taiwan,” the sources said. “If Taiwan became part of such plans, it could exacerbate the situation not only in Northeast Asia, but all over the world.”
At the same time, the sources said, Moscow moves from the assumption that the creation of a regional non-strategic ABM system in North-East Asia could be possible, if interest in such projects were displayed by China, South Korea, and all other countries.
Copyright 2001 Interfax. All rights reserved. The material on this page is provided by Interfax and may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
