LOS ANGELES.–Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, 74, considered 71-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin’s right hand man, told Russian Information Agency [RIA] that the Kremlin would consider more nuclear deterrence in Europe. Lavrov reacted to new U.S. missile deployments in Europe and the Indo-Pacific region apparently to confront a growing Russian and Chinese threat in the regions. Missile deployments by the U.S. to Europe and Indo-China violated the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces [INF] Treaty signed Dec. 8, 1987 by President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev. Former President Donald Trump withdrew from the treaty in 2019, citing frequent Russian violations. Given the state of war with the U.S. and the Kremlin, there’s no cooperation left on any arms control agreement, once a mainstay of U.S. foreign policy.
President Joe Biden, 81, sent 62-year-old Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Prague to drum up support in the EU for an escalation to the Ukraine War. Blinken made the argument that Ukraine needed to use U.S. and NATO weapons to attack inside the Russian Federation. Prague’s 38-year-old Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky agreed that the U.S. and NATO could no longer tie Ukraine’s hands in fighting the Kremlin, allowing the Ukraine military to hit targets with U.S. and NATO weapons inside Russia. Putin has warned that using U.S. and NATO weapons to strike Russia would cross a red line, prompting Moscow to consider using various conventional and nuclear weapons. Biden and Blinken keep provoking Putin, threatening to seize Russian assets to fund the Ukraine War. Escalating the war to inside Russia changes the way the Kremlin fights the conflict.
Lavrov told RIA that he wouldn’t rule out Moscow taking new steps with nuclear deployment in Europe and the Pacific Rim in response to U.S. stationing more conventional missiles in Europe and Asia. “We do not rule out additional steps in the sphere of nuclear deterrence, because our command centers and the locations of our nuclear forces will be in range of American-forward based missiles,” Lavrov said. Not only has Biden and Blinken threatened to escalate the Ukraine War, missile deployments could destabilize deterrence in the European Continent and Asia-Pacific region. So, in escalating the Ukraine War, Biden and Blinken now put the entire world at greater risk of nuclear war. If new attacks inside Russia threaten national security, all bets are off when it comes to escalating the conflict. Putin and Lavrov say that nukes are on the table.
Developments in Europe threaten post-WW II peace on the European Continent, now threaten peace in the Indo-Pacific. “The United State and Philippine practices put the entire region under the fire of the United States [and] brought huge risks of war into the region,” said Chinese Defense Ministry Spokesman Wu Qian. “Intermediate range missiles are strategic and offensive weapons with a strong Cold War color,” Wu said. Whatever happens in Europe or Asia, Russia and China are joined at the hip in confronting U.S. deployments of intermediate range missiles. If Russia were to widen the war in Europe, China would no doubt provide Russia with whatever it needs to beat back a U.S. offensive. Biden’s foreign policy has pushed Russia and China into a close economic, military and strategic alliance, no longer cooperating with the United States on global matters.
Deploying Typhon missile system to the north Philippines as part of Balikatan or ‘shoulder-to-shoulder” military drills, the U.S. has provoked Beijing. Puttting Tomahawk land attack and SM-6 misslies to Laoag city in Ilocos North province was noted by China’s Peoples Liberation Army [PLO]. Chinese President Xi Jinping sees the U.S. as meddling in China’s backyard, something opposed by Beijing in the strongest possible way. Xi has said he understands perfectly well why Russia feels encroached upon in Eastern Europe, prompting the Ukraine War, designed to push back against U.S. foreign policy. Blinken is making the rounds in Europe encouraging EU partners to accept that Ukraine needs to use U.S. and NATO weapons to attack targets inside Russia. NATO’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg backs the escalation to hit Russian targets.
Faced with escalating the Ukraine conflict, the EU hasn’t decided whether it wanted to risk potential air strikes by the Kremlin on European capitals. It’s one thing for Biden to push for war on the European Continent, it’s another when the U.S. hasn’t committed troops to the battlefield. Biden and Zelensky have warned Congress and the EU about Putin’s ambition to start taking over more European countries. If Biden or other EU officials really thought that Putin was ready to seize more sovereign European territory, they would have committed U.S. and NATO troops long ago. Saying that Putin wants to take over more European territory doesn’t mean it’s factual or has any imminent threat. U.S. and EU officials should be clear what they want because the Ukraine conflict is about to morph into WW III, dragging in more EU capitols into the conflict.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He is editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
