Russia has denounced moves by the United States to build a missile shield in Europe as “unacceptable” and hinted at walking out of talks with Washington.
In a sharp reaction to the proposed deployment of U.S. anti-missile warships on the Spanish coast, Moscow said the U.S. missile defence plans for Europe could undermine strategic stability on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
“We consider unacceptable the American practice of ‘faits accomplis' in the sphere of missile defence for Europe, when decisions that can affect security and stability in the Euro-Atlantic zone are taken without collective discussion [and] without taking into account the opinion of all countries concerned,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement issued on Thursday.
ADVERTISEMENT
Under a new agreement unveiled on Wednesday U.S. anti-missile warships will be based at Rota on the Spanish coast by 2018 to back up ground missile interceptors that would be deployed in Romania, Poland and Turkey.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said it saw no sign the U.S. was prepared to address its concerns and provide binding guarantees that the anti-missile system would not be threaten Russia strategic arsenals.
“On the contrary, we are seeing an ongoing effort to broaden the areas of deployment of U.S. anti-missile facilities,” the Russian statement said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Moscow warned that it could break off ongoing talks with the U.S. and NATO on missile defence cooperation.
“If events continue to develop this way the opportunity created at the Russia-NATO Council summit in Lisbon [in 1010] to turn missile defences from an area of confrontation into a subject of cooperation will be lost,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.