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Interview: THAAD deployment in S. Korea may push forward Russia-China security cooperation: Russian expert

Xinhua, August 2, 2016 Adjust font size:

The deployment of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Air Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system in South Korea might be an incentive for security cooperation between Russia and China, a Russian expert has said.

There needs to be new joint statements of strategic nature on security cooperation and protecting regional stability, said Sergei Luzianin, acting director of the Institute for Far Eastern Studies from the Russian Academy of Sciences.

"We do not need to make alliances, it is sufficient to maintain the partnership format and to enrich it with new joint statements of a strategic nature," Luzianin told Xinhua in a recent interview.

He added that the bilateral military-technical cooperation included joint exercises and could be expanded to global arena, "as the two countries function as global powers responsible for world peace, stability and development in both regional and global way."

The "creative" development of the Russia-China security cooperation would be based on existing agreements, with the rule of not directing against third countries nor changing the status of Russian-Chinese relations, Luzianin said.

"The deployment of new missile defense systems in South Korea is the most serious challenge in recent years, above all, to China and Russia," the expert noted, warning that the action could be a start of arms race in Northeast Asia.

"Taking this step, the Americans and South Koreans are trying in fact to surround the strategic partners, Russia and China, both from the south, and from the north," according to Luzianin.

Nevertheless, the action is not scary and will not have a deadly effect on the Russian-Chinese strategic partnership, the expert said.

Moscow and Beijing would use the "huge strategic potential of military deterrence" to counter the new tensions that the United States is trying to create in the region, Luzianin said.

"The Americans and South Koreans are afraid to unleash a conflict, as they realize that this conflict will inevitably lead to chaos and destruction," said the expert.

"Therefore, confrontation will continue within the framework of mutual deterrence," Luzianin said. Endi