MOSCOW, Oct 12: The United States on Friday rejected a Russian call to freeze plans for an anti-missile defence shield in central Europe, despite a warning that Moscow would “neutralise” the threat from such a system.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said after talks in Moscow that “negotiations with our allies... will continue” on deployment of the tracking radar and missile interceptors in the Czech Republic and Poland.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the project must be “frozen” and he warned that Russia would “take measures to neutralise that threat” if it went ahead without taking into account Russian concerns.
“We would prefer to avoid such a scenario,” he added.
Rice and US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates also met President Vladimir Putin in a bid to defuse mounting tensions between the two countries on a series of major international issues.
However the missile shield row, coming just after Putin said Russia could abandon a Cold War-era missile treaty, only reflected the increasingly tense atmosphere.
Washington describes the proposed missile shield as a limited system that could defend Europe against hypothetical future threats from Iran or North Korea. Gates said it “is not directed at Russia.” But Russia says its military capability would be blunted and Putin warned earlier this year that he could order nuclear forces to target European cities if the deployment went ahead.
During his meeting with Rice and Gates, Putin said the Cold War-era INF treaty limiting Russian and US shorter and medium range missiles was outmoded because other countries were acquiring such weapons.
“If we are unable to make such a goal of making this treaty universal, then it will be difficult for us to keep within the framework of such a treaty, especially when other countries do have such weapons systems,” Putin said.
Rice and Gates, who sat stern-faced through Putin’s opening remarks, later began talks with their Russian counterparts on a range of issues including Moscow’s threatened withdrawal from another Cold War-era treaty, the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty, which limits the numbers of troops and tanks stationed in Europe.
Lavrov welcomed what he said were “detailed (US) proposals on missile defense, the CFE treaty, as well as the arrangements for following the lapse of the CFE treaty.” However, General Yevgeny Buzhinksy, who heads the Defence Ministry’s department on international treaties, was defiant, saying Moscow would “not give any ground” on opposition to missile defence and its decision to abandon the CFE, state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported.
The two sides were also to raise Iran’s nuclear programme, the status of Kosovo, and proposals to renew the Cold War-era START strategic missile treaty.
“I know we don’t always see eye to eye on every element of the solution to these issues,” said Rice. “Nevertheless, I believe we will do this in a constructive spirit, that we will make progress during these talks, and continue to pursue cooperation.”
Adding to the sensitivity of the trip, which comes at a time of rancorous relations between an increasingly assertive Kremlin and the hawkish White House, Rice was to meet with human rights activists.
Domestic and foreign critics of Putin accuse him of dismantling post-Soviet democratic gains in the run-up to December parliamentary and March 2008 presidential elections.—AFP