By Xinhua
Budapest : The implementation of the US missile-defence project will not make Central and Eastern Europe a buffer zone, Assistant Secretary of State for International Security John C. Rood has said.
Following talks on the issue in Budapest with Russia’s representative Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak, Rood said the anti-missile system is designed to protect the US against possible attacks from the Middle East and not to threaten Russia, MTI news agency reported Thursday.
He noted that in recent years both North Korea and Iran had developed missile capacities, and this was a real and growing danger.
Russia respects the US position and the US now shares information with Russia that in earlier times was accessible to NATO partners only, the American official said.
Responding to a question, Rood said Budapest had been chosen as the venue for the fourth meeting between US and Russian experts on the planned anti-missile system because it’s a favourable geographical location.
The US wants to build an anti-missile shield in eastern Europe, a radar system in the Czech Republic and a missile interceptor site in Poland to defend the US and Europe from possible missiles from North Korea and Iran. But Russia sees it as a threat to Russia’s security.