MOSCOW, March 7 (UPI) -- Russia's foreign minister Tuesday said the Kremlin is pressing the U.S. government for answers about its missile defense plans.
"We are discussing the issue with our American colleagues and are asking them for answers to our questions and concerns, which are completely justified. Although meetings and briefings are being held on the issue, most of our questions have not received any clear answers," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, according to report from the RIA Novosti news agency.
The Russian foreign minister said transparency and trust were needed to counter the dangers of uncertainty over future U.S. strategic intentions being generated through the Bush administration's plans to build ballistic missile radar and interceptor installations in the Czech Republic and Poland over the next five years.
Lavrov said new U.S. strategic moves were being closely watched by the Kremlin. He said sometimes U.S. initiatives were made public before countries that would be involved had been informed of them.
The RIA Novosti report said that Russia was also concerned on March 1 when a senior U.S. Department of defense official announced that the U.S. government "would like to station a radar base in the Caucasus."
"The announcement evoked suspicions in Moscow that Georgia could be a possible site. Georgian officials have denied the possibility," RIA Novosti said.
"Along with the Caucasus, Ukraine was also mentioned, which later provoked questions with Ukrainian politicians," Lavrov said.
"The problem of strategic stability concerns everyone, and it is not mere coincidence that calls are made in Europe, including by Germany, to discuss issues such as the deployment of the American missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic in the organizations to which Poland and the Czech Republic belong, namely in NATO and the European Union," the Russian foreign minister said.
