Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov questioned on Wednesday the purpose of a United States plan to place an anti-missile system in Poland and the Czech Republic.
US officials say the system will protect it and it European allies from missiles that could be fired from North Korea, Iran or other ”rogue regimes”.
”To this we reply, knowing the reality, neither North Korean nor Iranian missiles can reach this region [Europe],” Ivanov told journalists on a visit to India ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s arrival on Thursday.
He said the two countries did not have, nor were due to acquire, intercontinental ballistic rockets.
”Now we have a reasonable question to ask: What is the target of this [anti-missile] system?” he said two days after a top Russian general called the plan a ”real threat” to Moscow.
The US is investing about $10-billion a year in its Missile Defence Initiative (MDI) system, which would combine long-range radars and ballistic rockets to detect and shoot down missiles carrying nuclear, bacteriological or chemical warheads.
The US State Department said on Sunday Czech Republic and Poland had agreed to start detailed discussions with Washington on hosting a part of the system.
Russia has repeatedly opposed the project, brushing aside US assurances that the system is not aimed at Moscow.
Moscow has warned Warsaw it could take unspecified measures if the system is built in Poland, a former Soviet satellite that became a close US ally after overthrowing communism in 1989.
Last year Ivanov attacked the missile shield as an attempt to change the strategic balance between Russia and the West. — Reuters