- (AFP) -- Russia for the first time aired plans to develop
a global missile defense shield along the lines of controversial US proposals.
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- "We will definitely develop theater missile defense
systems, as well as air-space defenses" of the type mooted by Washington,
said Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, quoted by news agencies.
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- He added Moscow was permitted to develop such a far-reaching
system after the United States last year unilaterally withdrew from the
cornerstone 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty which banned global
missile shields.
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- "Formally, Russia is also free from the limits that
were placed on strategic missile defense systems, by that document,"
Ivanov said.
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- Moscow fought furiously against US plans to build its
missile shield and ditch the ABM in part because it lacks the finances
to develop technology that mirror the Washington project.
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- Russia has powerful mid-range interceptor missiles which
it has proposed incorporating in a European defense shield and further
suggested it might take part in the development of a broader shield together
with the United States.
-
- But Ivanov's comments were the first to reveal that Russia
was also sizing up plans to construct a space-based intercepted missile
that Moscow has feared will be first developed by Washington and then turned
into an offensive weapon.
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- Russian President Vladimir Putin in a keynote UN address
in September 2000 lashed out against US plans to "militarize space."
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- Ivanov remained vague Wednesday about Moscow's actual
commitment to the futuristic project and appeared to concede that Russia's
stumbling economy prevented any grand plans in the short term.
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- "Of course, we will be basing (our decisions) on
common sense and technical feasibility, as well as economic realities,"
the Russian defense minister said.
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- He added the US and proposed Russian shield "should
not be aimed against each other" but failed to clarify those remarks.
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- "The US plans to build a missile shield do not harm
our national security, but some of its elements do prompt questions,"
he said.
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- US President George W. Bush in December announced plans
to deploy a limited missile shield by 2004 that would include 10 ground-based
interceptor missiles at Fort Greeley in Alaska.
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- Such a system is far too small to test Russia's massive
nuclear stockpile but Moscow fears Washington would expand the shield over
the coming years and -- with Russia too poor to replenish its ageing missile
arsenal -- could one day nullify its nuclear threat.
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- Ivanov said the space-based Russian shield is a project
"for more than one year. But we are already drafting several plans.
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- "We have missile defense technology that nobody
else has in the world," said Ivanov.
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