Agence France-Presse,
Luxembourg (AFP): Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday said the planned US missile shield could destabilise Europe and called for a joint analysis of the “threat”. “What we see in the American offer are several aims which do not address the principal, that is a joint analysis of the threat,” he told reporters in Luxembourg after meetings with european leaders in the Grand Duchy.
“One gets the impression that everything has already been decided in Washington.”
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates offered Russia cooperation on missile defence activities Monday but was swiftly rebuffed by Moscow.
Europe itself had not been consulted, Lavrov said a day after talks here with European leaders including his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
“We don't really see a way of joining the project, we don't see what interest there is in that,” he added.
Meanwhile in Moscow, the head of the Russian military also gave the proposal his thumbs down.
“Robert Gates who came to Moscow yesterday (Monday) said that the anti-missile shield in Europe was targetting neither Russia nor any other country,” General Yuri Baluyevsky, chief of staff of the Russian military told a news conference.
“We clearly see that the US anti-missile defence shield is being created to target Russia and we will never take part in it,” he said.
The United States insists that existing defences need to be extended to e,p3,rema.ana.hkgd.maxprotect against attack from “rogue states” such as Iran and North Korea and says its missile shield plans are not directed against Russia.
Russia has adamantly opposed plans to station 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a targeting radar in the Czech Republic, countries that lie close to Russian territory and were once under Moscow's control.
Nonetheless, Gates said Monday he remained “cautiously optimistic” after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow and even held out the possibility of co-locating a radar with the Russians.
Lavrov made his comments ahead of a meeting in Oslo Thursday of NATO foreign ministers, including US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, where extending the missile shield project will be discussed.
The missile defence issue has threatened to divide Washington's NATO allies in Europe.
Germany has said Washington must work to ease Russian concerns, while the Czech Republic and Poland have asserted that Moscow has no right to interfere.
Parts of the system are already set up in Britain and Greenland.
