Russia and NATO should focus their efforts on creating a European missile shield and developing a common information exchange system, and work should start immediately, said Oksana Antonenko, Senior Fellow and Program Director for Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).
She made these comments during the Valdai International Discussion Club’s Defense and Security section meeting, held in Moscow on May 25-27 and jointly organized by RIA Novosti, the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy and the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technology. It focused on the modernization of Russia’s Armed Forces and cooperation on international security.
“All NATO countries made the decision to set up a ballistic missile defense system capable of protecting the whole of Europe at their meeting in Lisbon,” said Antonenko. “Russia’s proposal for a sectoral approach offers the framework needed to consider signing agreements with NATO member states such as Poland and the Baltic States, under which Russia’s ballistic missile defense system would work in parallel with the NATO shield to protect them.”
She stressed that “this idea does not envisage any union between these different missile interceptor systems, but it may well be possible to create a joint information exchange system.”
Alexander Stukalin, a member of the Russian Defense Ministry’s Public Council, said “the fundamental positions of Russia and the Untied States are perpendicular.”
“Unfortunately, the United States firmly believes in the existence of new types of missile threat, and is set to neutralize them,” he said. “It is impossible to convince otherwise. Likewise, Russia is convinced that the ballistic missile shield is targeted at its strategic potential and will soon become a very real threat.”
“It is surprising that we have signed the New START Treaty, with its huge potential of trust and openness, but refuse to budge an inch on ballistic missile defense,” Stukalin said.
This is the first Defense and Security section meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club. It brings together experts from Russia, the United States, Britain, France, Belarus, Norway, Turkey, Germany, Poland and Japan.
The Valdai Discussion Club was established in 2004 by RIA Novosti, the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, The Moscow News, Russia in Global Affairs, and Russia Profile. The club is named after the location of its first meeting.
The club was designed to develop and sustain a dialogue between Russian and foreign scientists, politicians, and journalists, and to promote the analysis of political, economic, and social issues affecting both Russia and the world.
Valdai Club conferences, held both in Russia and abroad, have attracted dozens of leading political scientists from all over the world. Over the club’s eight years of existence, more than 400 scientists and scholars from 35 countries have contributed to its work.
