Karl. A. Lamers, President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly does not consider it necessary to provide legal guarantees that NATO missile defense elements pose no threat to Russia, and encourages it to take an active part in creation of this system. He told this reporters on November 1 after a meeting with members of the State Duma delegation. He said in the interview to Russia Today: “This system can not cause harm to Russia, because it is not directed against it. This system is directed against common threats, the threats against both Russia and NATO”. “Trust and confidence in each other underlie this system,” said Lamers, commenting on the issue of legally binding guarantees.” "This is, of course, can be spelled out in the documents, but I think if the goal is to achieve an international agreement to be long term, this is not absolutely required,” (?! – author’s note) the President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly added.
I would add for myself, if this is true, then why do the United States and Russia reduce strategic nuclear weapons under the START Treaty, and not by a friendly agreement?
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier that the United States’ unwillingness to legally fix the NATO missile defense elements are not directed against Russia give evidence that “our partners are not quite sincere.” “I regret to state that the signing of an agreement between Washington and Bucharest about deployment of US missile interceptors in Romania is only one link in the chain of events of the past two months,” said the minister in an interview to Serbian daily Evening News. “They confirm the United States’ disposition for an accelerated implementation of its missile defense plans without any regard to Russia’s repeatedly stated legitimate concerns.” The minister reminded that similar arrangements have been made with Turkey, the USA, Poland and Spain, “and, from all appearances, it is not an exhaustive list.”
Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said on 31 October in an interview with RIA Novosti, that for this reason the negotiations on missile defense are at an impasse today.
“The process which is going on within the framework of the Alliance, is clearly ahead of the discussion in the NATO-Russia Council,” Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matvienko drew Lamers’ attention. “In point of fact, we are faced with the policy of fait accompli, when practical deployment of the ballistic missile defense components is carried out, which ultimately will be able to weaken our defensive capabilities.” According to her, “the decisions which ensure at least that NATO’s and Russia’s military planning is not directed against each other, meet Europe’s security interests.” As for the interaction between Moscow and NATO on missile defense, the head of the upper chamber of the parliament confirmed that Russia will not proceed to practical cooperation on missile defense without prior approval of goals and objectives of the system.”
At the same time, the State Duma Vice Speaker Lyubov Sliska after a meeting with a delegation of the Bureau of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly said that in whole, the work between Russia and the alliance is progressing well. “Today, if we leave aside the problems of missile defense, we appreciate the work of the NATO-Russia Council as a very successful,” she emphasized.
New details in the negotiations between Russia and NATO were specified by Russia’s permanent representative to NATO Dmitry Rogozin. He pointed out that it is from the US that Moscow requires legal guarantees that European missile defense elements pose no threat to Russia. “We would like to get coherent and long-term assurances that NATO will not also commit actions that could lead to the use of the system against Russia’s deterrent capability,” said Rogozin, explaining that the question is about multilateral guarantees that do not require ratification. “It is from the US that we require ratification procedures,” said the permanent representative.
Earlier, the Russian side had stated that it was expecting legal guarantees from NATO, which would require ratification of this document by parliaments of each member of the Alliance. The Russian members of parliament told their NATO colleagues a clear idea that the position of Russia’s body of legislation will not change also after its reelection on December 4. So there is no point for the West to hope for the departure from Russia’s stated positions.
We can say that Moscow and Brussels once more compared notes on the ABM issue. Usually in diplomacy before reaching a compromise, the sides assert maximum claims and firmness of their positions. These are the rules of any trade. Including political one. Doesn’t it show that both sides are willing to compromise?
Meanwhile, the Russian armed forces demonstrate their readiness to an asymmetric response to NATO’s efforts to devalue the Russian strategic potential. Russia is modernizing its strategic nuclear forces. The third successful launch of a new Bulava strategic missile was held from the new strategic submarine of the Borei project. The second submarine of this project has been floated out, which will allow putting the entire system into production in 2012. Long-range missiles production plants for the Strategic Missile Forces, Navy and Army are being built which will allow to double their annual production in 2013. The existing sea- and land-based missiles are being modernized to improve their efficiency of overcoming anti-missile defense. The formation of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) has been almost completed.
According to the corresponding member of RAS Alexei Arbatov, it can not be called an arms race. “Moscow is carrying out planned modernization of its strategic forces with a decrease in their total number,” he said in an interview with a military observer of Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Viktor Litovkin. And it is not so terrible that in December 2010 the Russian strategic nuclear forces were composed of 611 strategic delivery vehicles capable of carrying 2679 nuclear warheads and those of the United States included 811 strategic delivery vehicles with 5966 nuclear warheads.
According to the head of CAST Ruslan Pukhov, “Today you can not evaluate the enemy’s weapons capabilities only by the number of weapons he has at disposal. This applies to both conventional weapons and strategic nuclear forces. Ultimately everything depends on their technological and striking capabilities.”
Russia is “ready to continue the anti-missile dialogue both with the US and NATO,” said Russian Foreign Minister “But if our partners continue to ignore our position, we will have to provide our own security interests by other means,” Lavrov warned. In this regard, he did not rule out that “specific and induced military-technical counter measures would be required.” “I’d go so far as to say - we do not want such developments in events,” the minister confirmed.
This statement assumes special importance ahead of a meeting of Russian and American presidents on the sidelines of the next G-20 summit in Cannes.
