With less than a year left before the expiration of New START, the US and Russia returned to the negotiating table Tuesday in Vienna, Austria. The first day was to be just a full day of talks, followed by three days of negotiations on details of potential deals.
There is no word of progress yet, unsurprising on the first day. There was talk of extending New START, though the US is still trying to find a way to get China involved. China, despite US calls, did not show up at Vienna.
Another issue was space security, with the US accusing Russia of having “turned space into a war-fighting domain.” The US is pushing for a new round of “rules of war” that would specifically govern space war.
Russia and China have both suggested banning weapons in outer space via international treaty. The US opposes such a ban, saying they want instead a specific set of rules about what weapons are allowed, and not those which are not.
“Russia and China have both suggested banning weapons in outer space via international treaty. The US opposes such a ban, saying they want instead a specific set of rules about what weapons are allowed, and not those which are not.”
Aren’t we the peace seeking indispensable exceptional pieces of sh*t.
The US says the Russians and Chinese have already tested and have ready for launch just such space weapons.
The US concern is for loss of its satellites essential to GPS navigation and guided weapons, Link-16 local communications among forces, long range radio command and control, and national surveillance assets.
Laughable……the US has established a space force ( farce ) to lure Russia into an arms race in space, like the US lured the USSR into an arms race and went into Bankruptcy.
And now the US accuses Russia of having “turned space into a war-fighting domain……because Russia has found the cheapest way to solve the problem.
“US lured the USSR into an arms race and went into Bankruptcy”
I like how Reagan is always given credit for that but in reality the Soviet Union was going down no matter if Kermit the frog had been president.
“China, despite US calls, did not show up at Vienna.”
As with Iran, the US is using alleged “nuclear concerns” to cover a hidden agenda to reduce the conventional forces and conventional activities of a rival.
China has a bare minimum of nukes, a number set as just enough to deter a nuclear first strike. Of course they won’t reduce that, nor does the US need their few hundred nukes reduced — they have fewer than Israel, for example.
What the US seeks is to reduce the non-nuclear ballistic weapons now aimed at Taiwan and/or as “carrier killers” to isolate Taiwan. They are meant to strike Taiwan’s airfields and ports, to isolate it at the outset of any fighting. It has nothing to do with nuclear weapons, nor with arms limitation as done with Russia.
This train left the station long ago. From the start it was proposed space be declared an international commons. The US flat resisted and
went immediately to satellite surveillance and targeting, then guidance, kinetic and cyber ability to ko enemy satellites, …and god knows what toys the rambo nerds at the new Cyber Command are frantically squirraling at.