Russia is waiting for the U.S. response to its offer of international cooperation in the field of missile defence, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, responding to Rossiiskaya Gazeta readers to be published on April 16.
“In the course of the discussion on the third launch area for the global missile defence, the United States did not assume obligations regarding the terms of access to the third launch area facilities by Russian officials,” the minister said.
“In addition, Poland and the Czech Republic object to our permanent presence. On the whole, the measures of ‘transparency and trust’ that were proposed to us were rather symbolic and could not help ease the Russian concerns,” Lavrov said.
“Americans have never transferred, do not transfer and will probably never transfer the right to control their strategic systems. They do not make exceptions even for the closest allies,” he said.
“Russia has proposed an alternative to the third launch area: foster international cooperation in the field of missile defence, assess missile threats and, if need be, work our joint response measures. This initiative remains in force. We are waiting for the new U.S. administration’s reply,” Lavrov said.
Russia and the United State could cooperation on missile defence and find an alternative to the proposed American third missile launch area in Eastern Europe, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said earlier.
“What is important is that we will have an opportunity to discuss an alternative [to the third missile launch area] in the form of cooperation between Russia, the U.S. and European countries in the field of missile defence,” Ryabkov said.
He said Russia understood such cooperation “as joint analysis and assessment of possible threats, a search for ways to counter these threats by political and diplomatic methods”.
