US missile shield:
Obstacle to new nuclear deal -Putin
RUSSIA: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday US
plans for a missile defense system were the main obstacle to reaching a
new deal on reducing Cold War arsenals of nuclear weapons.
The two largest nuclear powers say they are close to agreeing on a
successor to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I),
although US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
have yet to clinch a deal.
Asked by a reporter what the biggest problem was in the talks, Putin
said: “What is the problem? The problem is that our American partners
are building an anti-missile shield and we are not building one.”
Speaking to reporters in the Far Eastern Russian city of Vladivostok,
Putin said the US plans would fundamentally disrupt the Cold War balance
of power and Russia would thus be forced to develop new offensive
weapons.
The comments, from Russia’s most powerful politician, showed the
seriousness of the problems hampering talks on a replacement for START I
and illustrated the deep unease still felt in Moscow over Washington’s
missile defence plans.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly rejected any
attempt to broaden the START negotiations to cover defensive weapons
systems, although another senior US official voiced optimism over the
talks.
Russia’s leaders have remained wary about Obama’s revised missile
defense plans, which are based on sea- and land-based missile
interceptors in Europe.
“If we are not developing an anti-missile shield, then there is a
danger that our partners, by creating such ‘an umbrella,’ will feel
completely secure and thus can allow themselves to do what they want,
disrupting the balance, and aggressiveness will rise immediately,” Putin
said.
VLADIVOSTOK, Wednesday, Reuters |