MUNICH, Germany, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- Russia is ready to team up with Western nations in developing a new ballistic missile defense system, its foreign minister said Sunday.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov made the offer while speaking at the annual Munich Security Conference Sunday, the RIA Novosti news agency reported. Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates also attended the conference.
Ivanov said Russia did not regard any other nation in the world as its enemy. "We have no countries, the relations with which have been significantly impaired," he said according to the report.
However, the Russian defense minister also warned that the international security system was falling apart.
"There are more conflicts in today's world than during the Cold War period," he said according to the report.
The United States is working with several European nations to deploy BMD systems to defend its European NATO allies against the threat of ballistic missiles that could be launched by so-called "rogue" nations like North Korea or Iran. However, Ivanov said neither country would be able to create ICBMs in the immediate future, RIA Novosti reported.
Ivanov also played down speculation that he was the most likely candidate to succeed Putin when the president's second term of office ends next year. "I want to announce that we have no successors or crown princes. The Russian people will decide at the March 2, 2008 elections who will be the president of Russia," Ivanov said according to the report.
