Russia Considers Deploying Missiles to Asia
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.
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.