What's new

Russia Open To Missile Defense Cooperation With NATO

Water Car Engineer

ELITE MEMBER
Joined
Sep 25, 2010
Messages
13,313
Reaction score
8
Country
United States
Location
India
111210_dn_russia_nato_397.JPG


Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, left, welcomes visiting NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen to Moscow on Nov. 3. Lavrov said Russia is open to cooperating with NATO on missile defense.

SEOUL -
Russia is open to cooperation with NATO on missile defense but the partnership must be an equal one, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said.

"We proceed from the fact that if this is equal cooperation, beginning with joint analysis, joint estimates of those risks that exist in the sphere of missile proliferation then such cooperation is quite possible," Lavrov told reporters at the G20 summit in Seoul on Nov. 12.

"Strategic partnership should be built on an equal basis."


His comments came just before a scheduled weekend meeting between U.S. President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev, on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Yokohama, and ahead of the NATO summit in Lisbon which the Kremlin chief agreed to attend.

NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen travelled to Moscow for talks with Medvedev earlier this month.

"The Russian president said he will be ready to formulate our additional proposals... in relation to the creation of an anti-missile pool of interested states,"
Lavrov said, referring to Russia, the United States and European countries.

Moscow's Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said last month his country was open to talks on NATO's planned European missile shield but wants to play an equal role in developing it.

"The most important thing for us is firstly to define what are the real threats to Europe, and secondly is to see Russia put on an equal footing as a participant," Serdyukov said in an interview with German weekly Der Spiegel.

"It is only thus can an anti-missile defense system be put in place which satisfies everyone."


Previous U.S. plans to deploy an anti-missile system in former Soviet satellite states in eastern Europe angered the Kremlin. NATO now hopes to ease these doubts by including Moscow in the planning of a broader system.

Lavrov said a joint anti-missile shield would be possible "with the existence of goodwill, readiness to cooperate on an equal footing, with mutual respect, taking into account each others' interests".

"It will not be directed against any third countries but it will highlight that Russia and NATO have common approaches, that we have common risks."




Russia Open To Missile Defense Cooperation With NATO - Defense News
 
.

Pakistan Defence Latest Posts

Pakistan Affairs Latest Posts

Back
Top Bottom