Military scheme agreed to by Nato called ‘serious threat’, while weapons experts warn of new arms race risked

A US announcement of a plan to station long-range missiles in Germany for the first time since the cold war has set off a diplomatic furore between Washington and Moscow and elicited comparisons to the European missile crises of the 1980s.

Russian and US officials both accused each other of provoking the escalation on Thursday, as arms control experts warned that the deployments of missiles on the European continent, after the collapse of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, could fuel a new arms race.

The decision to station non-nuclear Tomahawk cruise, SM-6 and hypersonic missiles in Germany from 2026 was welcomed by Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, who said it “fitted exactly” into his government’s security strategy, even as the move attracted fierce criticism amid fears it would make Germany more vulnerable to attack.

Scholz said the decision had been long in the making and would come as “no surprise” to anyone who was knowledgable about security and peace policies.

  • thebestaquaman@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    4 months ago

    There wouldn’t be a war in Ukraine if Ukraine just gave up.

    Let’s turn that around:

    There won’t be a WWIII if Russia just gives up trying to force close-by countries to listen to them under threat of war.

    Russia has already stationed short and medium range nuclear weapons in Belarus, and somehow they think that stationing conventional weapons in Germany is a breach of some kind of “deal”? That’s ludicrous. If they don’t want near by countries arming themselves to the teeth they should consider not threatening them with war all the time. We are not threatening to attack Russia. Notice that. NATO is arming up, and explicitly saying “if you attack us, we are prepared.” Meanwhile Russia is explicitly threatening “military action” if NATO dares to arm up.