| |
| |
![]() |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
MOSCOW - A joint US-Russian missile shield protecting the two former Cold War foes against nuclear-armed extremists would be "very positive," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday.
"It would be in my view a very positive outcome if some day in the future you see the United States and Russia announcing a joint plan on missile defence," she told an audience of students at Moscow State University.
Clinton stressed that the United States and Russia shared fundamental values and needed such a joint system to defend themselves against the threat of attacks by extremist groups.
"The biggest immediate threat the world faces are nuclear weapons under the control of groups of people... who believe that martyrdom or suicide attacks are a positive way to end one's life," Clinton said.
"That is not Russia and that is not the United States," she added.
Clinton did not specify who she meant, but Washington has said its missile defence plans are designed to protect against Iran, whose fiercely anti-US government supports the radical Islamic groups Hamas and Hezbollah.
Russia, however, has been deeply sceptical of the US plans, and strongly opposed a plan backed by former US president George W. Bush to deploy missile defence facilities in Poland and the Czech Republic.
The Obama administration last month scrapped the eastern Europe plans and replaced them with a new scheme for a mobile, sea-based system designed to protect against short- and medium-range missiles.
Moscow welcomed the US move to scrap the Polish and Czech sites, but it has not been entirely happy with the new system, which Washington said could also include land-based components in Europe from 2015.
"We currently have a whole array of questions about what has been decided on implementing the new scheme for creating a missile defence system," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Wednesday.
Ryabkov's comments came after he met on Monday with the US Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, Ellen Tauscher, to discuss the new US missile plan.
"The Americans gave us fairly in-depth, detailed explanations on these questions and we will study them," the Russian news agencies quoted Ryabkov as saying.
- AFP/ir
|
