By Xinhua
Brussels : North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) defence ministers agreed here Thursday to assess the political implications of the US plan to deploy a missile defence shield in Eastern Europe.
"NATO will move forward to assess the implications of the US missile defence system proposals, with the aim to conclude a report by February 2008 … before the NATO summit several months later", NATO spokesman James Appathurai told reporters here Thursday following a morning session of the NATO defence ministers which opened earlier in the day.
The defence ministers from the 26 NATO members agreed that missile defence is an issue of indivisible security, and that NATO is an appropriate forum for discussion of the issue, said Appathurai.
"The NATO-Russia Council is also an appropriate forum for discussion of missile defence," he added.
The two-day NATO defence ministers' meeting focuses on missile defence, Afghanistan and Kosovo.