MOSCOW, December 24. /TASS/. The US is afraid to lose its maritime supremacy due to the increasing capabilities of the Russian Navy and inflate fuel the confrontation in order to increase the military spending, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday.

"Strategists in Washington are most concerned that the growing Russian naval capabilities can challenge US’s superiority at sea," she noted. "Apparently, they have never heard about such principles as equal safety or parity, or, if they have, they must have misunderstood them."

In this regard, Russian Foreign Ministry pointed at the December 17 updated joint Navy, Coast guard and Marine Corps strategy. This strategy describes the forces’ joint plan of preparation for countering Russia and China, which Washington defines "two most significant threats to the era of global peace and prosperity," Zakharova said. According to the diplomat, the confrontational idea of competition of superpowers is a leitmotif of the entire document.

"According to the Americans, Russia allegedly displays aggression by implementing is programs on development of nuclear missile weapons, submarines, aviation and air defense," the diplomat continued. "Meanwhile, our country is once again attributed with the idea of ‘escalation for de-escalation,’ meaning an intention to use nuclear weapons in case of a military conflict in order to stop the hostilities on conditions that benefit Russia; this is a deliberate lie."

"In the past few years, we repeatedly noted similar American assessments in regard to a standoff with Russia, copied in many doctrine and budget documents, and the rhetoric of these documents becomes harsher every time," Zakharova noted. "Such ‘strategies,’ if we can call them that, are being produced with a single goal: to justify the course for further increase already absurdly high US military expenses, exercised under the idea of ensuring Washington’s global domination. Such approach is deliberately fruitless, and it not only not contributes to the use of the world ocean in order to bring various communities closer, it also provides a long-term foundation for growing confrontation at sea, which could have extremely dangerous consequences."

Russia believes that the new US administration should thoroughly reconsider this approach, the spokeswoman said.