Russia and NATO not reaching agreement on European missile defense system

[News_Editor]

Russia and NATO not reaching agreement on European missile defense system

2011-07-05 01:54:09 GMT+7 (ICT)

SOCHI, RUSSIA (BNO NEWS) -- Russian Foreign Ministry on Monday announced that Moscow could not agree on the establishment of Europe's sectoral missile defense system with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), RIA Novosti reported.

"It is not a big secret to say that an agreement will not be reached on a sectoral approach," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said during the NATO-Russia Council meeting.

NATO wants to establish two independent systems that exchange information while Russia favors a joint system with full-scale interoperability in which Moscow would be responsible of shooting down missiles heading to NATO members passing through Russian airspace.

In November 2010, Russia and NATO agreed to cooperate on establishing the European missile defense system at the Lisbon Summit. However, the two sides have not agreed on the details since.

"Many key issues still need to be addressed. We never said we would agree on missile defense overnight, or even in a few months," said NATO Secretary-General Anders Fog Rasmussen. "We are determined to keep up the dialogue."

In May, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said that if an agreement with NATO was not reached, Russia will enhance its strike nuclear capabilities instead. The missile network was proposed by the United States to defend Europe from possible North Korean and Iranian missile attacks.

Russia also opposed to the planned deployment of U.S. missile defense systems near its borders, claiming they could pose a security threat. Medvedev said that this scenario would be similar to the Cold War era.

On July 1, Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov announced that the Bulava submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) will go into serial production after the June 28 successful launch; the 15th attempt in the troubled missile's history and the eighth that succeeded.

The Bulava (SS-NX-30) SLBM is capable of carrying up to 10 MIRV warheads and has a range of over 8,000 kilometers (5,000 miles). The Bulava's warheads are reportedly being shielded against radiation, electromagnetic interference and physical disturbance.

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