NATO, Russia agree on missile defence cooperation, nonproliferation

[News_Editor]

NATO, Russia agree on missile defence cooperation, nonproliferation

2010-11-21 04:19:28 GMT+7 (ICT)

LISBON (BNO NEWS) -- Moscow is ready to participate in a joint missile defense shield in Europe "on principles of equality and responsibility," and is ready to cooperate in monitoring nuclear programs of Iran and other countries, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Saturday.

"I have held bilateral talks on the subject with the leaders of a number of European countries as well as President Obama and we will continue our dialogue related to a European missile defense system," Medvedev said after a NATO-Russia summit in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon.

"Today we have not only buried ghosts of the past that have haunted us for too long," said NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen after the summit. "We could cooperate one day in shooting down missiles," Rasmussen said.

"Now we're also resetting the NATO-Russia relationship. We see Russia as a partner, not an adversary," said U.S. President Barack Obama. "We agreed to cooperate on missile defense, which turns a source of past tension into a source of potential cooperation against a shared threat," Obama added.

Also a number of leaders urged the U.S. Senate to ratify the new START treaty. "Unprompted, I have received overwhelming support from our allies here that the New START treaty is a critical component to US and European security. They have urged both privately and publicly that this gets done," Obama said.

President Medvedev said the Russian parliament will go at same pace as the U.S. Senate in ratifying the new treaty.

Obama and Medvedev signed on April 8th the treaty to reduce their respective arsenals to a maximum of 1,550 warheads, a 30% cut on the limit set by the Moscow Treaty, concluded in 2002.

Russia and NATO have also drafted an agreement allowing the alliance to carry supplies to and from Afghanistan across Russia, allowing NATO to ship armored vehicles and other equipment.

Meanwhile, NATO also pledged on early Saturday to hand over responsibility for security to Afghans by the end of 2014. "We have launched the process by which the Afghan people will once again become masters in their own house," Rasmussen said.

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