Russia and China Condemn U.S. Golden Dome Missile Shield Plan

Beijing — Russia and China issued a joint statement on Thursday criticizing President Donald Trump's proposed Golden Dome missile-defense system, warning that the project threatens global strategic stability.

"The project poses an obvious threat to strategic stability and contradicts the principle of interconnectedness between strategic offensive and defensive weapons."

The statement followed talks between President Xi Jinping and President Vladimir Putin in Beijing.

The Golden Dome Project

The U.S. initiative aims to significantly expand ground-based missile defenses while adding space-based components to detect, track, and potentially intercept incoming threats from orbit. China and Russia argued that the system disrupts the balance between offensive and defensive strategic weapons.

Arms Control Concerns

Both nations expressed regret that Washington allowed the New START Treaty—the last remaining major nuclear arms control pact between the U.S. and Russia—to expire without a replacement.

Russia specifically voiced support for China's refusal to participate in any potential U.S.-Russian nuclear arms control negotiations.

Broader Strategic Friction

The joint statement also referenced plans by unidentified nuclear powers to forward-deploy ground-based intermediate and shorter-range missiles, calling such moves a threat to other states.

"Attempts by some states to position preemptive or preventive missile strikes are highly destabilizing."

Nuclear Exercises

Coinciding with the diplomatic move, Russia displayed footage of troops delivering nuclear warheads to mobile Iskander-M missile launch systems, part of a major ongoing nuclear exercise.