The NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen plans to present a concept for the development of a missile defence system jointly with Russia to the NATO foreign ministers. A two day meeting of the NATO countries at foreign-minister level opened in the Estonian capital Tallinn today. Moscow was not invited to take part in the discussion of a “Joint Project with Russia”.
Moscow has repeatedly made proposals for cooperation between Russia and NATO in the field of global security. On the whole, the North Atlantic Alliance demonstrated its interest in the dialogue with Moscow on that score. In late March Rasmussen said that it is necessary to develop such a missile defence system, which would be built by joint efforts of Russia and NATO’s countries and which would become a “security roof” for everybody.
True, Rasmussen offered no sketch for such a “roof”, stressing only that it should cover the whole territory from Vancouver to Vladivostok and turn into a political symbol to the effect that Russia is a full-value member of the Euro-Atlantic community.
Meanwhile, the final plan of interaction in the field of a single defence system of Russia and NATO should become part of NATO’s new strategic concept, which is due to be unveiled at the summit in Lisbon in November this year. Which means that there’s not very much time left to coordinate the details. But instead of starting concrete talks with the Russian side, the NATO officials have decided at first, to work out an interaction option acceptable for themselves and then to offer it to Russia. This has caused Moscow’s disapproval, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stressed.
Cooperation between the North Atlantic Alliance and Russia in the field of missile defence is possible only in the format of all the participating states. But the main thing here is that if it comes to joint work, joint work should begin with the very first step – meaning the analysis of missile threats and working out a common approach on how to cope with all these threats. This is what interaction actually means. Should we be invited to get involved in the project, which was worked out without our participation, it would be very difficult to qualify this as joint work.
And one more circumstance. While the North Atlantic Alliance is thinking over the possibility to develop a missile defence system jointly with Russia, the USA is fulfilling its plan to build a missile defence system in Europe. As the Polish Ministry of National Defence reported, the placement of the U.S. Patriot missiles in Poland in Eastern Europe will start in one month’s time. The first anti-aircraft battery will be transported to its dislocation area, 100 kilometres away from the Russian-Polish border, on May 24th.
That is, whatever NATO’s plans are, the USA’s plan to create a missile defence system in Europe is being put into practice. Americans claim that it must protect the interests of their country and its allies against the threat of a missile-nuclear threat, first of al, on Iran’s part. Only this is a hypothetical threat. Earlier this week the Pentagon submitted a report on Iran’s military potential to the White House.
The report admits that by the year 2015 Iran may produce and test an intercontinental ballistic missile. But only with help from outside, as military analysts stress. Iran does not have such plans though, as experts acknowledge. The Pentagon’s report says that Iran’s military doctrine contains no provisions for waging aggressive wars, and the probability of creating nuclear weapons serves as a basis for deterring Tehran. In this case, the following question arises: why does the USA need a missile defence system in Europe?
