WASHINGTON, May 21. /TASS/. Golden Dome, the new US missile defense network, will be capable of intercepting nuclear weapons, among other things, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said at a joint news conference with US President Donald Trump.
"We will protect the homeland from cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, hypersonic missiles, drones, whether they're conventional or nuclear," he said.
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.".