MOSCOW: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Monday it is necessary to link any resolution of the U.S. plans for missile defense in Europe with other countries’ interests.
“No one says missile defense is in itself harmful or creates a threat to someone. On the contrary, it is aimed at resolving a number of specific problems. The issue is to link this or that missile defense configuration with other countries’ interests,” Medvedev said at a joint news conference after talks with U.S. President Barack Obama in Moscow.
Medvedev also said the Obama administration, unlike its predecessor, had taken a pause and is examining the situation to formulate a final position.
Obama has shown less interest than President George Bush in opening a missile interceptor base in Poland and a radar station in the Czech Republic, which Moscow has fiercely opposed as a security threat.
Obama has not yet announced a final decision on whether to move ahead with the deployment. The Bush administration said the missile defense shield elements were to counter possible strikes from “rogue” states, and not aimed against Russia.
Medvedev said Russia and the United States have made a “step forward” on the way to a compromise on missile defense.
“The problem of the Third Site is a rather complicated topic for our discussion, but I would like to emphasize that the joint understanding we have just signed speaks of an interconnection between offensive and defensive armaments, and this is already a step forward: even a short time ago we had only differences on the issue,” he said.
But he added that the differences still existed.
“We have adopted a joint statement on the missile defense and it is already an important result of work even though we still have differences on a number of positions,” Medvedev said.
Obama said the planned U.S. missile defenses in Europe would not provide protection from Russia’s nuclear arsenal and should not be linked to strategic arms cuts, stating that it was intended to deal with a totally different threat.
The presidents signed a preliminary agreement to cut their countries’ nuclear arsenals to 1,500-1,675 operational warheads within seven years after a new arms reduction treaty comes into force.
They also instructed experts to analyze ballistic missile threats of the 21st century and draft relevant recommendations.
