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| Sunday, 19 January 2003 |
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Russia blasts British go-ahead for US missile defense plan MOSCOW, Saturday (AFP) Russia criticized late Friday Britain's decision to agree to a US request to upgrade a key radar station in northern England for President George W. Bush's controversial missile defence project, the RIA Novosti news agency reported Saturday. "This move by the British military is unlikely to reinforce international security and will for sure complicate the multilateral process of arms control and reduction, including regarding nuclear weapons," a foreign ministry spokesman told RIA Novosti. Britain said Wednesday it would agree to an US request to upgrade the Fylingdales radar facility in Yorkshire, northern England. British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said the move would come at a time when there was a heightened threat from weapons of mass destruction. Washington last month formally asked Britain to use the radar station for its missile shield project which is designed to protect it from attack by so-called "rogue states." Moscow fought furiously against US plans to build its missile shield and ditch the cornerstone 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty, which banned such global missile shields. However, Russia on Wednesday for the first time aired plans to develop a global missile defense shield of its own, along the lines of the US proposals. "We will definitely develop theater missile defense systems, as well as air-space defenses" of the type mooted by Washington, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said. Ivanov added that Moscow was permitted to develop such a far-reaching system after the United States last year unilaterally withdrew from the ABM treaty. |
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