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Russia Will Not Stop NATO Missile Defense Plans: Says U.S
U.S. ambassador to NATO on Friday said the Obama administration initiative to establish a missile defense system across Europe would go forward "whether Russia likes it or not," Reuters reported.
The U.S. plan calls for deploying a web of missile interceptors and associated technology in nations such as Poland, Romania and Turkey. The plan would provide the backbone of a planned NATO missile shield, and the Western alliance has spent the last year trying to persuade Russia to join the effort.
Moscow, though, says the NATO system might be aimed at countering Russia's nuclear forces. It has threatened to deploy short-range missiles in its Baltic enclave and to withdraw from the New START nuclear arms control treaty if an agreement on missile defense cannot be reached with Washington and NATO.
However, U.S. Ambassador Ivo Daalder informed journalists the Kremlin's problems with the planned missile shield "won't be the driving force in what we do."
Since the Obama administration announced its "phased adaptive approach" for European missile defense in fall 2009 -- a scaled-back approach to an earlier Bush administration plan -- U.S. calculations of the danger of a ballistic missile strike from Iran have only increased, Daalder said.
"It's accelerating and becoming more severe than even we thought two years ago," Daalder said of the Iranian missile threat.
"We're deploying all four phases [of the phased adaptive approach], in order to deal with that threat," the ambassador said.
Should the danger of an Iranian missile attack abate, "then maybe the system will be adapted to that lesser threat," Daalder allowed.
As the alliance has primarily disregarded Moscow's repeated objections to the missile shield plan, Russian Ambassador to NATO Dmitry Rogozin last week warned his nation could consider canceling an agreement that allows NATO to transport supplies to Afghanistan over Russian territory.
Daalder said Moscow and the alliance continue to disagree on a range of matters, particularly the Kremlin's demand for a legally enforceable guarantee that U.S. missile interceptors in Europe would not be aimed against Russia's strategic forces.
"They have gotten themselves quite hung up on our unwillingness to put this in legally binding writing," the U.S. diplomat told reporters.
He said Obama officials doubt a binding guarantee would be approved by the U.S. Senate or that the United State "wouldn't necessarily at some point walk away from it" -- as Washington unilaterally did in 2002 with a 1970s era antiballistic missile pact with Moscow.
Should Washington ever decide to field antimissile systems to neutralize the threat of Russia's nuclear weapons, "we wouldn't deploy them in Europe. We would deploy them in the United States," Daalder said.
The physical principles of missile interception make it "easier and better to approach an incoming missile from the opposite side than it is to try to chase it down," he said.
NTI: Global Security Newswire - Russia Will Not Stop U.S. Missile Defense Plans, Envoy Says
U.S. ambassador to NATO on Friday said the Obama administration initiative to establish a missile defense system across Europe would go forward "whether Russia likes it or not," Reuters reported.
The U.S. plan calls for deploying a web of missile interceptors and associated technology in nations such as Poland, Romania and Turkey. The plan would provide the backbone of a planned NATO missile shield, and the Western alliance has spent the last year trying to persuade Russia to join the effort.
Moscow, though, says the NATO system might be aimed at countering Russia's nuclear forces. It has threatened to deploy short-range missiles in its Baltic enclave and to withdraw from the New START nuclear arms control treaty if an agreement on missile defense cannot be reached with Washington and NATO.
However, U.S. Ambassador Ivo Daalder informed journalists the Kremlin's problems with the planned missile shield "won't be the driving force in what we do."
Since the Obama administration announced its "phased adaptive approach" for European missile defense in fall 2009 -- a scaled-back approach to an earlier Bush administration plan -- U.S. calculations of the danger of a ballistic missile strike from Iran have only increased, Daalder said.
"It's accelerating and becoming more severe than even we thought two years ago," Daalder said of the Iranian missile threat.
"We're deploying all four phases [of the phased adaptive approach], in order to deal with that threat," the ambassador said.
Should the danger of an Iranian missile attack abate, "then maybe the system will be adapted to that lesser threat," Daalder allowed.
As the alliance has primarily disregarded Moscow's repeated objections to the missile shield plan, Russian Ambassador to NATO Dmitry Rogozin last week warned his nation could consider canceling an agreement that allows NATO to transport supplies to Afghanistan over Russian territory.
Daalder said Moscow and the alliance continue to disagree on a range of matters, particularly the Kremlin's demand for a legally enforceable guarantee that U.S. missile interceptors in Europe would not be aimed against Russia's strategic forces.
"They have gotten themselves quite hung up on our unwillingness to put this in legally binding writing," the U.S. diplomat told reporters.
He said Obama officials doubt a binding guarantee would be approved by the U.S. Senate or that the United State "wouldn't necessarily at some point walk away from it" -- as Washington unilaterally did in 2002 with a 1970s era antiballistic missile pact with Moscow.
Should Washington ever decide to field antimissile systems to neutralize the threat of Russia's nuclear weapons, "we wouldn't deploy them in Europe. We would deploy them in the United States," Daalder said.
The physical principles of missile interception make it "easier and better to approach an incoming missile from the opposite side than it is to try to chase it down," he said.
NTI: Global Security Newswire - Russia Will Not Stop U.S. Missile Defense Plans, Envoy Says
