Agence France-Presse, Russia faces no threat from expansion of NATO and the planned deployment of U.S. anti-missile defences in Poland and the Czech Republic, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said June 25 during a visit to Russia.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization chief rejected Moscow’s claim that the planned U.S. system, which would consist of 10 interceptor missiles and a tracking radar, posed a danger to Russia.
The system only aims to stop potential missile attacks from Iran or North Korea and “will not affect Russia’s (nuclear) capability in any way,” de Hoop Scheffer said on Echo of Moscow radio, according to the station’s on-air translation.
“You don’t have to be Einstein to understand that 10 kinetic rockets are of no threat at all to Russia,” he said, adding that Moscow had not put forward “any convincing arguments” to back its fierce opposition to the U.S. plan.
De Hoop Scheffer, who was to meet with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on June 26, also tried to reassure Moscow over NATO’s eastward expansion into the ex-Soviet bloc, saying it reflected democratic progress.
According to de Hoop Scheffer, “the door is open” for countries showing interest in NATO, including ex-Soviet Georgia and Ukraine. “Very clearly at the end of the day it is the people who decide,” he said.
The speaker of Russia’s upper house of parliament, Sergei Mironov, said in a debate with de Hoop Scheffer that NATO was “encircling” Russia.
“I’d say we’re not friends or enemies, but partners. However, partners need to talk as equals and that unfortunately is not happening,” Mironov said. “I see a threat in this.”
Mironov repeated Russia’s insistence that the U.S. anti-missile system would harm Russia’s security because the radar “would monitor all of Russia right up to the Urals.”
De Hoop Scheffer also underlined NATO’s belief that the UN Security Council should give the breakaway Serbian province of Kosovo conditional independence, something Russia opposes.
“The status quo there is unacceptable,” de Hoop Scheffer said.
“Kosovo is a very serious security problem in the heart of Europe,” he added.
Mironov warned that Russia would likely veto any such UN resolution. “My prediction is that Russia will use its veto,” he said.
