West's Policy of Escalating Conflict With Russia Posing Threat of Nuclear Clash, Shoigu Says
© AP Photo / Ng Han Guan
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BEIJING (Sputnik) - On October 29-31, Chinese capital Beijing is hosting the 10th Beijing Xiangshan Forum under the theme "Common Security Lasting Peace." The forum brought together defense and military leaders, heads of international organizations and think tanks, experts and scholars of more than 100 countries to discuss security issues.
The policy of Western countries to escalate the conflict with Russia poses the threat of a direct military clash between nuclear powers, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said on Monday.
"The West’s line of steady escalation of the conflict with Russia carries the threat of a direct military clash between nuclear powers, which is fraught with catastrophic consequences," Shoigu said at the 10th Beijing Xiangshan Forum.
The minister added that Russia's withdrawal of ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) does not mean the destruction of this regime of military-strategic balance.
"As for our country’s withdrawal of ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, this is only a desire to ensure a balance with the United States, which has never ratified this treaty. There is no talk of its destruction," he noted.
Moreover, Shoigu emphasized that US military biological activities are gaining momentum, adding that Washington has deployed a network of laboratories in some countries of the Asia-Pacific region.
"The military-biological activities of the United States are gaining momentum, with a whole network of laboratories deployed in Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia and South Korea," the minister underlined.
20 October 2023, 16:34
In addition, he highlighted that similar US laboratories operated in Ukraine with the assistance of those European states "that today are seeking to join the ASEAN Plus [Association of South East Asian Nations Plus] mechanisms."
Furthermore, the minister stressed that the West is using Ukraine as a battering ram to inflict "strategic defeat" on Russia after Moscow took countermeasures to the expansion of NATO to the east.
"Ignoring Russia’s legitimate rights to ensure its security, the White House persistently pursued the expansion of NATO, which it controls, to the east. These aggressive steps forced us to take countermeasures. In response, the West openly took a course to inflict a 'strategic defeat' on Russia in the hybrid war unleashed against us. Ukraine was cynically chosen as a battering ram, which is assigned the role of consumable material," Shoigu said.
