MOSCOW. Feb 10 (Interfax) - Moscow will be closely monitoring the possible deployment of U.S. hypersonic missiles in the Asia Pacific region, as it may drastically change the security situation there, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Friday.
"We have seen such statements in the Japanese press. Of course, the information needs to be verified, however, the absence of official refutations by the U.S. and Japanese authorities as of this moment, to our knowledge, seems to speak for itself," Zakharova said at a press briefing.
A journalist asked Zakharova to comment on media reports regarding plans to deploy U.S. hypersonic missiles in Japan.
The United States "is actively working on the soonest finalization of a broad range of weapons earlier prohibited by the INF Treaty and their deployment in both the Asia Pacific region and Europe," Zakharova said.
"For our part, we are set to watch very closely any preparations for the implementation of such plans. We will view the beginning of their implementation as a qualitative change in the regional security situation, which will be projected on global strategic stability," she said.
"As for the response from the angle of sufficient levels of Russia's security, the emergence of U.S. ground-based intermediate and shorter-range missiles in the Asia Pacific region is the criterion to give grounds for lifting the unilateral moratorium on the deployment of weapons of this class in the aforesaid regions," Zakharova said.