WASHINGTON, May 21. /TASS/. The US administration plans to allocate approximately $175 billion in total for its Golden Dome missile shield project, US President Donald Trump said at a joint news conference with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
"Probably <…> we're talking about $175 billion total cost of this when it's completed," Trump said.
"This design for the Golden Dome will integrate with our existing defense capabilities and should be fully operational before the end of my term," he continued, adding that Canada was interested in joining the project.
"We will truly be completing the job that President [Ronald] Reagan started 40 years ago, forever ending the missile threat to the American homeland. And the success rate is very close to 100% which is incredible," Trump added.
Russia and China’s stance
Russia and China are convinced that the Golden Dome program for the United States is of a deeply destabilizing nature, as follows from the joint statement on global strategic stability, uploaded to the Kremlin's website in the wake of the talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
"The recently announced large-scale program Golden Dome for America, which envisages the creation of an unconstrained, global and multi-tier missile defense system providing protection against any missile threats, including all types of missiles of adversaries equal or similar in strength, also has a deeply destabilizing character," the document reads.
Russia and China believe that the Golden Dome project spells complete refusal to recognize the link between strategic offensive and defensive weapons.
In their view, the large-scale missile defense system program "means complete and final refusal to recognize the inextricable link between strategic offensive and strategic defensive weapons, which is one of the central and fundamental principles of maintaining global strategic stability.".