According to sources of the publication, the White House asked the Pentagon to postpone the tests so as not to provoke Moscow
Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden greet each other before the start of the Russian-American summit in Geneva
The Pentagon postponed testing of hypersonic weapons before the meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin with American leader Joe Biden, so as not to annoy Moscow. This is reported by Politico with reference to sources.
According to the publication, the White House asked the Pentagon to postpone the tests. The United States was worried that Russia might misinterpret such a signal or that the launch of such weapons would sabotage the meeting altogether.
The source of the publication in the US Defense Ministry noted that Russia, for its part, also did not do “provocative things” before the summit.
Putin and Biden met in Geneva on June 16. The negotiations lasted almost four hours. As a result, the political leaders adopted a joint statement on strategic arms control. “Today we reaffirm our commitment to the principle that there can be no winners in a nuclear war and it should never be unleashed,” it said.
Putin said that there was no hostility or pressure from both sides during the talks, and the meeting was “concrete, substantive”. Biden called the atmosphere of the summit “good and positive”. Experts interviewed by RBC indicated that both presidents should have been satisfied with the results of the meeting, and the agreements reached can be regarded as a success. At the same time, a researcher at the American Institute for Foreign Policy Studies (FPRI) Maximilian Hess noted that the meeting between Putin and Biden left a feeling of understatement about the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria, as well as the topic of cybersecurity.
In July, the Russian Defense Ministry announced successful tests of the hypersonic missile “Zircon”. Putin announced in the summer that “Zircon” will soon be on combat duty. The Pentagon saw the missile tests as a potential threat. “The new Russian hypersonic systems are a potentially destabilizing factor and pose a noticeable threat because these systems are compatible with nuclear ones,” the US said.
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