NATO leaders launched Sunday the first phase of a US-led missile shield for Europe, risking the wrath of Russia which has threatened to deploy rockets to EU borders in response.
A NATO official told AFP that US President Barack Obama and his allies “just made the decision” at a Chicago summit to place a US warship armed with interceptors in the Mediterranean and a Turkey-primarily based radar system below NATO command in a German base.
The alliance insists the shield is not aimed at Russia and aims to knock out missiles that could be launched by enemies such as Iran, but Moscow fears that the system will also serve to neutralize its nuclear deterrent.
“Missile defense is indispensable. We are faced with real missile threats,” NATO Secretary Basic Anders Fogh Rasmussen explained on the eve of the summit, adding that 30 states either have or seek ballistic missile technologies.
“Against a actual threat we require a genuine defense,” he explained.
The standoff has tested Russian-US relations for significantly of the past decade and been one of the primary troubles addressed by Obama when he launched a diplomatic “reset” with Moscow in 2009.
Russian military chief Basic Nikolai Makarov said this month one selection was for Russia to station brief-variety Iskander missiles in its Kaliningrad enclave close to Poland, a lengthy-working threat that has alarmed Eastern European states.
NATO had hoped that Russian President Vladimir Putin would come to Chicago, but as a substitute he sent a reduced level delegation to represent Moscow during the summit’s discussion on Afghanistan.
Putin, who returned to power after succeeding his protege Dmitry Medvedev this month, was typically at odds with the previous US administration over missile defense in his first two terms of office.