Russia threatens to quit START if US builds missile shield

May 18, 2011, 12:04 GMT

Moscow - Plans by the US to deploy a missile defence shield in central and eastern Europe could force Russia to quit an agreement limiting each countries' strategic nuclear weapons, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Wendesday.

Medvedev, speaking at a televised news conference, said that deployment of a planned US missile shield would be a direct threat to Russian nuclear weapons capacities and would oblige the country to abandon agreed limits on intercontinental missiles and launchers.

'We are ready to cooperate, but at the same time we hope that we will receive guarantees,' he said. 'If we do not ... then we will have to take retaliatory steps, even if we very much don't want to.'

US officials have said a missile shield is needed to protect Europe from potential missile strikes from rogue states. They deny it is directed towards Russia.

Medvedev said the deployment of a missile shield in Eastern Europe would give Russia the right to abandon commitments in the bilateral Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).

'In START there is a specific paragraph that if someone develops anti-missile defences, that would reduce mutual strategic weapons parity and the agreement can be abrogated or even annulled,' he said.

Medvedev and US President Barack Obama last year signed an updated version of the START cutting the number of nuclear missile launchers in each country by half.

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