Alliance between Russia, China threatens West

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NEW WORLD DISORDER

Welcome to new Cold War

Publishing Date: 11.02.07 14:08

John ScarlettBy Gordon Thomas LONDON -- MI6 intelligence analysts have prepared the first detailed analysis of the new military links between Russia and China -- described as "being the most serious since the Cold War ended."

Sir John Scarlett, the head of MI6, will present the document to U.S. and European security chiefs at a closed meeting in the West German city of Munich this week. The document is based on intelligence his officers have obtained in the wake of the U.S. decision to site parts of its controversial missile defence system in eastern Europe. The plan calls for American interceptor missiles to be deployed at a huge silo in north-eastern Poland with the capability to destroy rockets heading for America from Iran and North Korea. Known as 'Son of Star Wars," the U.S. rockets will be controlled from radar facilities installed in the Czech Republic. But the MI6 documents reveal that a joint venture between Moscow and Beijing could create a new generation of intercontinental ballistic missiles that would double the number of ICBMs both countries presently possess. Russia has 506, China 46 of such missiles.

That would give them a far more powerful "combat readiness" than ever before. Russia plans to spend in the next five years - significantly, before the "Son of Star Wars" is in position - a staggering $189 billion on its weapons modification programme. To that figure, according to the MI6 document, China will add a further $65 billion. This sharp increase in expenditure comes at a time when Washington is hoping to use Beijing to persuade North Korea to cease its nuclear posturing. At the same time the Bush administration's relationship with Vladimir Putin is verging on being icy as the winds blowing from Siberia.

John Scarlett will tell security chiefs at the Munich meeting MI6 has established that 20 new Russian ICBMs will come on line by the end of this year. This compares with an average of four per year in recent years. In addition, by 2009 there will be a further 34 silo-based Topol-M missiles, adding to the 40 Topol-M missiles already forming an arc that faces into Europe and across Alaska into the United States. "The deployment makes a mockery of the 2002 Treaty in which the United States and Russia agreed to jointly cut by two-thirds their strategic nuclear weapons. But in the past two years there has emerged a clear, authoritative attitude in Moscow. In part this is because of Russia's own considerable economic resurgence as a result of its oil and gas revenues," states the MI6 report. It also reveals that Russia and China are working to develop a new early-warning radar system for each country. There are also joint-venture projects to build nuclear submarines and a fleet of aircraft carriers. But those projects "are in the embryo stage and will not come on line until 2020," concludes the report.

Gordon Thomas, a regular G2B contributor, is the author of "Gideon's Spies: The Secret History of the Mossad," the new edition of which was published in January. He specializes in international intelligence matters.

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