NATO to Reach Out to Russia on Missile Defence

Instead of criticising a new security treaty between Europe and America, Russia should consider coming under the umbrella of a NATO missile defence shield, the alliance’s secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen said 8 October. NATO will decide in November whether NATO Nations will share the costs of a US-deployed shield in Europe.

” NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, during a speech at the German Marshall Fund in Brussels insisted that the the threat of European countries being hit with a missile is “real”.

Russia has so far been lukewarm about the new missile defence architecture put forward by US President Barack Obama last year, which focuses on seaborne capabilities in the Mediterranean and only at a later stage would have land-based missiles deployed in Romania and Poland.

Mr Rasmussen said that if there is agreement at a NATO summit in Lisbon from 19-20 November to have a NATO missile defence shield, Russia would be invited to co-operate. the good news is that President of Russia, Mr. Medvedev, will participate to the Summit.

Co-operating with Russia would “make sense militarily”, it would provide more security to more people and “also politically, it would make the point that it is not against Russia,” Mr Rasmussen said.

However, the cost of the system still seems to be the main stumbling bloc.