Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov believes the United States' decision to withdraw from a key Soviet-era arms deal is aimed at Washington increasing its military capacity and strengthening its power to pose a threat to China, reports Reuters.
Back in 2018, then-President Donald Trump announced the US' intention to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, an agreement signed in 1987 by leaders Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev.
The formal withdrawal took place in August 2019, marking the end of an important chapter in arms control.
Ryabkov, told "International Life", the official publication of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, that the motive behind Washington's decision was now "revealed with absolute, indisputable clarity".
"The Americans had to withdraw from the treaty in order to create such systems to intimidate the People's Republic of China", Ryabkov said, quoted by BTA.
"And it is no coincidence that recently discussions about when and where the Americans can begin to deploy their medium-range weapons in the Asia-Pacific region have become more frequent. And also in Europe, but above all in the Asia-Pacific region," he added, quoted by BTA.