Russian minister says no rogue state missile threat to Europe

Apr 11, 2007, 6:43 GMT

Berlin - Europe is under no threat currently or in the foreseeable future from missiles belonging to rogue states, according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov writing Wednesday in the German newspaper Financial Times Deutschland.

'We are convinced that no threat of this kind exists to Europe or the United States, either today or in the foreseeable future,' Lavrov said.

'None of the so-called rogue states possesses missiles that could seriously endanger Europe,' the foreign minister said, adding that a threat to the US was even less likely in the light of the more advanced technology required.

Any attempt to set up a unilateral missile defence system 'would change the geostrategic landscape of the continent,' Lavrov said, suggesting there was a 'hidden agenda' behind the plans.

Russia was prepared to participate at all levels in a discussion on the US plans to station around a dozen missiles in Poland along with a radar station in the Czech Republic.

Russia backed 'an integrated approach to resolve the problems of the Euro-Atlantic region,' preferably in trilateral talks between the US, the European Union and Russia, he said.

The best forum for this was the NATO-Russia council that meets in Oslo at the end of April, the Russian foreign minister suggested.

Imaginary threats were hindering efforts by the three to resolve the real problems of the Middle East, Iraq, Afghanistan and the Iranian nuclear programme, Lavrov said.

The US aims to station the missiles by 2013 to counter a potential threat from Iran.

While the Polish and Czech governments are in agreement, the plans have run into opposition from other NATO countries, specifically Germany, which is calling for the issue to be discussed within NATO and with the Russians.