BERLIN, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- Germany's foreign minister Thursday sought to ease U.S.-Russian tensions over missile defense plans.
"I would like these debates to be conducted without anti-American insinuations," Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told a news conference in Berlin after negotiations with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.
"I also believe that the discussion on the (missile shield) issue should not contain any protests and should not harm the arms control process," Steinmeier said.
All the nations participating in the process needed to be included in the talks, Steinmeier said. He urged "a broad dialogue on the deployment of elements of the U.S. missile defense system in Central Europe, without accusations against the United States," RIA Novosti said.
The Bush administration has said it wants to build a radar tracking installation in the Czech Republic and a base for anti-ballistic missile interceptors in Poland over the next five years to defend its European allies against threats from so-called "rogue" states such as Iran. However, Russian leaders have accused Washington of building the installations against them.
Lavrov told the Berlin news conference that the U.S. plan was to create a "third ring" of BMD defenses in Europe. He warned that this endanger global security and stability, RIA Novosti reported.
"There is a technical aspect to this problem, because according to some reports the third missile defense ring in Poland will have missile silos that are similar to those built for launches of ballistic missiles," Lavrov said according to the report.
