Russia Concerned With US Missile Defence Plans Outside Europe Too — Top Diplomat
Interfax - 4.2.12 - JRL 2012-61
Moscow, 2 April: The plans by the USA and its allies to develop a missile defence system in the Pacific region, in the Persian Gulf area and in the Middle East cause concern in Russia.
file photo"So far, our attention has mainly been focused on the European area. I can assure you, however, that we watch other areas very closely too, and we are concerned with what is starting to happen in the Far East. We are concerned with what may happen in the Persian Gulf area and in the Middle East as a whole," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said in an interview to Interfax.
He set off to Tokyo on Monday evening (2 April) for consultations on strategic stability.
"I am going to discuss all these issues. We are of course concerned with the global nature of US missile defence plans," Ryabkov said.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced at the weekend the readiness to set up a missile defence system in the Persian Gulf. The USA also intends to deploy a missile defence system in the Pacific region, involving Japan and South Korea.
"The problem is very serious, and our concerns are only exacerbated when we see the confirmation that it is all being integrated, that a common global network is being set up, extremely mobile, with a large number of sensors, with a large number of facilities to monitor launches from space. So in a few years we are going to have a totally different configuration in the sphere of missile defence," he told the agency.
He explained why Russia was now focused on the European theatre: "Because it is here that the physical deployment of forces and resources in the waters and on the ground is already taking place as a matter of priority. So the European missile defence segment is ahead of the others in time. If one looks at the geography of deployment of the European segment of US missile defence and at the geography of deployment of Russian strategic nuclear forces, legitimate questions are bound to arise."
"After we have learnt more about the geography of deployment of US forces and resources in other regions, or joint ones with the US allies in Asia and the Middle East, we will draw the necessary conclusions. I stress, however, that this is the illustration of the fact that Russia does not oppose something because of some politicized ideological motives but that it realistically correlates what the USA and its allies propose with its own security interests," the senior Russian diplomat explained.
Keywords: Russia, Missile Defense - Russian News - Russia
Moscow, 2 April: The plans by the USA and its allies to develop a missile defence system in the Pacific region, in the Persian Gulf area and in the Middle East cause concern in Russia.