Russia Warns of Nuclear Arms Race as Missile Defense Talks Deadlock

NATO Says Russia 'Wasting Money' By Trying to Counter Shield

Reports from French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe caution that the ongoing talks with Russia regarding the NATO missile defense shield have virtually deadlocked, saying that the talks will continue and that he hopes Russia will eventually be convinced of the need for the shield.

Russian officials, for their part, insist they don’t buy the NATO claims that the shield is aimed at Iran or some other hypothetical threat, particularly when most of the missiles are on the Russian frontier and outside the range of Iran’s best missiles.

Military chief General Nikolai Makarov expressed concern that the dispute over the shield would lead to a Cold War-style nuclear arms race, saying that Russia had plans to deploy new weapons in the exclave of Kaliningrad to keep the relative balance in the region.

NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen mocked the idea, saying that Russia was “wasting their money” by trying to develop counter-measures to the missile shield, saying Russia would be better off spending the money on “job creation.” For NATO, job creation appears not to be a major concern.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.