Madam Chair, the chicken littles from the socialist party--the same people who were in favour of unilateral disarmament during the cold war--claim that the adoption by democratic allies of ballistic missile defence technology will lead to a new arms race.
My question is very simple. Is my friend not aware that when President Putin, on behalf of Russia, acceded to the American abrogation of the anti-ballistic missile treaty two years ago, after the summit in Washington, the two countries also signed a nuclear arms control agreement where both countries agreed to reduce their nuclear warheads by up to a third of the nuclear arsenal of both the United States and Russia?
Is he not aware that the advent of this defensive technology laid the ground for a one-third reduction of the nuclear arsenals of the two major nuclear powers of the world, with a promise for further and future reduction of nuclear warheads?
How can he argue that this will lead to a new arms race when, if anything, it has resulted in the opposite, which is a reduction of nuclear warheads?