In January, the U.S. announced plans to deploy elements of its anti-ballistic missile system in the Czech Republic and Poland as a shield against possible strikes from North Korea and Iran, which are involved in long-running disputes with the international community over their nuclear programs.
Russia, which has long been anxious about the opening of NATO bases in former Communist-bloc countries and ex-Soviet republics, has strongly criticized the plans as a national security threat and a destabilizing factor for Europe.
"The philosophy is clear - increasing air defense missiles by one side causes the other side to augment its strategic offensive arms," Vitaly Churkin told a UN disarmament committee.
He said Russia cannot consider the U.S. air defense program as an exceptionally defensive move. "It is breaking a global strategic balance and creating first-strike capabilities," the diplomat said.
Churkin also criticized the admittance of former Warsaw Pact countries to NATO as a violation of key provisions of international agreements on armaments.
Russia's concerns rose with a statement by a senior Pentagon official in March that air defense elements could also be deployed in the South Caucasus. Moscow believes it could be Georgia, whose pro-Western President Mikheil Saakashvili has been on bad terms with Moscow since coming to power in 2003.
Churkin also warned that favoring the use of force in global politics over diplomacy in the UN Security Council could push the world into another arms race spiral and give rise to new nuclear powers.
"Under these conditions, an increasing number of states are looking for ways to enhance their security by increasing their defense capabilities, and some of them are even considering turning to missiles and nuclear weapons. That, in its turn, will cause unprecedented growth in military spending and stoke an arms race," the envoy said.
Churkin said that Moscow consistently complied with its nuclear disarmament commitments, reducing its nuclear arsenal by 80% and its weapons storage sites by 75% over the last 15 years.
He also said Russia had prepared an international agreement to prevent the deployment of weapons in space, and using force or threatening to use force against spacecraft as a safeguard against the emergence of a new potential battleground.
A successful missile test launch carried out by Beijing in January, which destroyed an aging Chinese weather satellite and was revealed only two weeks later, caused an international uproar and raised concerns about the emerging world power's military ambitions.
