The People's Liberation Army (PLA) and the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (VSRF) together issued a joint declaration in Geneva on March 28 blasting the United States for deploying its THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) anti-missile system in South Korea under false pretenses.

Like Us on Facebook

The U.S.' main strategic competitors again whined that THAAD "damages the strategic balance and stability (and) will inevitably deteriorate the international security environment."

THAAD "far exceeds the defense needs of South Korea, and the United States' true purpose, which obviously disagrees with its declared one, is to make the THAAD system a segment of the US global missile defense system, and to strengthen its surveillance on the strategic depth of China and the Russian Far East region, seriously damaging the strategic interests of China and Russia," said Major General Zhang Jian, Chinese representative and director of the Operation Bureau under the Joint Staff Department under China's Central Military Commission.

During the joint briefing on global and regional anti-missile situations called by the PLA and the VSRF, Gen. Zhang also said the anti-missile issue had a profound and long-term impact on the global strategic balance and stability, peace and security, as well as arms control and disarmament process.

The development of the global anti-missile situation is a major issue concerning international security, and has a profound impact on the process of nuclear disarmament and strategic stability, according to Lt. Gen. Viktor Poznihir, first deputy head of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff of the VSRF.

He said United States' unilateral withdrawing from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM Treaty) in 2002 after the extinction of the Soviet Union in 1991 and its establishment of the global anti-missile system undermines the current international security system and has ruptured the strategic balance.

He also said actions by the U.S. might lead to an arms race that will generate "unpredictable consequences," including lowering down the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons, impairing the offense-defense force balance and even threatening space security.

Both the PLA and VSRF claim the United States took the missile threats from Iran and North Korea as an excuse for reinforcing its missile defense system deployment, but the actual capacity of the US missile defense system far exceeds its claimed defense needs, the system is, in fact, targeting Russia and China.

TagsPeople's Liberation Army, Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, THAAD, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, South Korea, Major General Zhang Jian, Lt. Gen. Viktor Poznihir