MOSCOW, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- Russia objected Thursday to a U.S. plan to put anti-missile warships on the coast of Spain, saying the move could end its cooperation on a NATO missile shield.
RIA Novosti reported the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement the United States had decided to deploy the warships "without collective discussion" and the move raised concerns about "significant buildup of U.S. missile potential in the European zone."
"If this continues, then the chance created at the [2010] NATO-Russia summit in Lisbon to turn anti-missile defense from an area of confrontation to an area of cooperation may be lost," the statement said.
The statement came a day after the United States and Spain announced an agreement to deploy U.S. Navy cruisers in Rota, Spain, as part of a NATO European missile shield.
"Not only do we see no readiness on the part of the U.S. administration to address Russia's concerns about the key issue of guaranteeing that the future system will not be aimed at Russia's strategic nuclear arsenal, we also note the tendency to increasingly expand the deployment areas of the U.S. anti-missile systems," the Russian Foreign Ministry statement said.
The U.S. ambassador to Russia, John Beyrle, said this week he was hopeful the United States and Russia could agree on an information-exchange system for European missile defense shields by the next NATO summit, scheduled for May in Chicago.
NATO favors two independent systems that would exchange information. But Russia prefers a single system covering all of Europe that would be operated jointly by Russia and NATO with full interoperability.
Moscow has expressed concern that a missile-defense system based in Eastern Europe and Turkey -- the West says that is needed to protect against threats from Iran and the Middle East -- could target Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles used as nuclear deterrents.
