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WASHINGTON, October 28. /TASS/. Marc Berkowitz, a candidate for the post of assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy, does not support a draft Treaty on the Prevention of the Placement of Weapons in Outer Space, the Threat or Use of Force against Outer Space Objects (PPWT) proposed by Russia and China, he said at a hearing considering his candidacy in the Armed Services Committee of the US Senate. "While diplomacy is an instrument to protect and advance U.S. interests and it would be imprudent to rule out any option which might enhance U.S. national security, I am opposed to the PPWT and skeptical about space arms control. Any space arms control agreement must be effective, equitable, verifiable, and in the U.S. national interest," Berkowitz said in written responses to questions from lawmakers prepared for the hearing. Berkowitz said that if his candidacy is approved, he will consider plans to deploy the new US Golden Dome missile defense system as a priority. "If confirmed, I would prioritize: (1) development and maintenance of a comprehensive, new-generation homeland missile defense; (2) deterrence and defense of U.S. citizens and critical infrastructures against foreign attack on the U.S. homeland with such weapons; and (3) defense of U.S. retaliatory capabilities," Berkowitz said. According to him, the United States needs "a comprehensive, next-generation homeland missile defense against ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missiles and other advanced aerial threats." US President Donald Trump said on May 20 that the United States had decided on the architecture of the Golden Dome system, adding that $175 billion will be allocated for it. According to Trump, it will take a little less than three years to create the new system. The reaction of Moscow and Beijing A joint May 8 statement adopted after talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping says that the Golden Dome program is "deeply destabilizing." This US project involves the creation of an unlimited, global, deeply layered and multi-spherical missile defense system to protect against any missile threats, including all types of missiles from "equal and comparable opponents in strength," the document says. First of all, this means a complete and final rejection of the recognition of the inextricable relationship between strategic offensive and strategic defensive weapons, which is one of the central and fundamental principles of maintaining global strategic stability, Russia and China said. They believe that this project gives an additional impetus to a further development of kinetic and non-kinetic means of pre-launch destruction of missile weapons and the infrastructure that ensures their use. The situation is aggravated by the fact that the program provides for a significant strengthening of the arsenal of means for conducting combat operations in space, including the development and deployment of interception systems in orbit, which turns outer space into an environment for the deployment of weapons and an arena of armed confrontation, Moscow and Beijing warned.
