Russia reiterates demand for guarantees concerning U.S. missile defense
MOSCOW. March 18 (Interfax) - The United States' announcement on Friday that it would deploy 14 additional missile interceptors in Alaska and an early-warning radar in Japan vindicates Russia's demands for legal guarantees that the U.S. global missile defense plans are not directed against Russia, Moscow said on Monday.
"We hereby state that the U.S. adheres to the course of strengthening its global missile defense and raising its effectiveness. We assume that this confirms the need to evolve a reliable legally binding guarantee of the non-anti-Russian nature of the American missile defense efforts and to agree to clear technical criteria of their conformity with the declared objective of countering potential limited missile threats emerging outside the Euro-Atlantic region," Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Friday's announcement about the planned bolstering of the U.S. global missile defense was made by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.