PanARMENIAN.Net
Moscow ready to reverse course if Washington reviews its shield plans
07.02.2009 15:41 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Russia said on Friday that U.S. President Barack
Obama’s new administration offered a "window of opportunity" to
resolve deep divisions over U.S. missile shield plans in central
Europe.
Speaking at the start of the Munich Security Conference, an annual
meeting of leaders to discuss foreign policy, Russian Deputy Prime
Minister Sergei Ivanov said Medvedev is ready to reverse course if
Washington reviews its shield plans.
Ivanov said Russia will not install Iskander missile systems in the
Kaliningrad region if the United States gives up its missile shield
plans.
"President Dmitry Medvedev from the very start said clearly that if
there are no interceptors in Poland and the Czech Republic … there
will be no Iskanders in Kaliningrad," he said.
Moscow has strongly opposed U.S. plans to install 10 interceptor
missiles in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic by 2013 as a
threat to its security and nuclear deterrent. Washington says the
defenses are needed to deter possible strikes from "rogue states" such
as Iran.
Medvedev threatened in November to retaliate over the U.S. missile
shield plans in central Europe by deploying Iskander-M missiles in the
country’s westernmost exclave of Kaliningrad, which borders NATO
members Poland and Lithuania.