Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday that
his country wanted to hold talks with the United States over its
intentions to deploy part of a missile defense shield in eastern
Europe.
"The Americans' decision has been made in a way that is
disrespectful both to the European Union and even to other NATO
members," Lavrov said according to the Interfax news agency at the
State Duma, the lower house of parliament.
Russian military experts want to "talk professionally" with
their US partners "to persuade them that the hypothetic threats can
be countered using other methods that would not pose a tangible
threat to Russia," Lavrov was quoted as saying.
The United States is seeking to deploy a missile defense radar
in the Czech Republic and interceptor missiles in Poland as part of
a US-built shield against ballistic missiles. The intentions have
drawn sharp criticism from Moscow despite US assurance the system
is not targeted at Russia.
The plans to deploy missile defense elements in Europe "run
counter to the security approach that Russia is promoting," Lavrov
said.
"Such things should be done collectively rather than based on an
old approach, when our American partners devised something for
themselves and then started implementing this assuming everybody
would accept it as a fait accompli," he said.
"This is how it was done in the past, during the Cold War era,"
Lavrov said, adding: "Now we are facing common threats."
(Xinhua News Agency March 22, 2007 )
