Mark Esper, on his way to Australia, said he
would like to see the deployment in “months” of arms once limited by a treaty
By
Thomas Gibbons-Neff
 |
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Defense
Secretary Mark T. Esper arriving in Sydney, Australia, on Saturday.
Credit
Rick Rycroft/Associated Press
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SYDNEY,
Australia — The American
defense secretary, Mark T. Esper, said Saturday that he was in favor of
deploying ground-based missiles to Asia, a day after the United States formally
pulled out of a Cold War-era arms treaty that directly limited such weapons.
Mr. Esper, speaking to reporters on his way
to Australia, said he would like to see the deployment within “months” but did
not specify an exact timeline, the types of weapons the United States would
deploy and where exactly they would be positioned.
“These things tend to take longer than you
expect,” Mr. Esper said.
Such a move would be likely to anger China
and North Korea, two countries that have long opposed the deployment of
American military hardware anywhere near their borders, and would most likely
prompt further consternation from allies that Washington was veering
dangerously close to starting a new arms race.
In 2018, the United States announced it would
withdraw from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces agreement, known as
the I.N.F. treaty, after accusations that Russia had long dodged the treaty by
repeatedly deploying nuclear-capable, medium-range missiles that could travel
within the agreement’s prohibited range.
On Friday, the United States formally did so,
months after Russia said it would suspend its observation of major aspects of
the pact in a “symmetrical” response.
The demise of the treaty left a major hole in
NATO’s defense, and the world body said on Friday that it would respond in a
“measured and responsible way” to a deployment of missiles by Moscow that
violated the pact.
The accord banned land-based missiles that
could travel 310 to 3,417 miles. Russia has repeatedly denied breaching the
pact.
On Saturday, Mr. Esper was careful to say
that the deployment of any American missiles to Asia would be “conventional” in
nature and within “I.N.F. range.”
His pledge to field shorter-range missiles to the region has not
stopped the Pentagon from looking toward an I.N.F.-free future in which
longer-range ground-based missiles might soon be tested and deployed.
But Mr. Esper also expressed caution on
Saturday over how long those types of weapons would take to reach the field.
“I honestly can’t recall if it’s 18 months or
longer, but my sense is it would likely take longer,” Mr. Esper said. “It’s
fair to say, though, that we would like to deploy a capability sooner rather
than later.”
With China wielding an array of weapons
capable of striking Taiwan, Japan, India and Guam, and the recent North Korean
tests of short-range ballistic missiles that have been compared to Russia’s
nuclear-tipped Iskander ballistic missile, experts say they believe that a new
arms race may be on the horizon.
One remaining bulwark against such a move is
New START, a treaty between the United States and Russia that dictates the
number of strategic weapons that can be deployed. But the agreement is unlikely
to be renewed when it expires in less than two years.
When asked about the fate of New START, Mr.
Esper said that “we need to take a serious look at the treaty” and make sure
that it is still within the United States’ interests.
If the United States wants to avoid an arms
race, Mr. Esper said, efforts should be made to incorporate other countries
into the treaty.
