Article Posted on : - Nov 15, 2008

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev with his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy in Nice, France on Friday

LONDON (BNS): Russia indicated on Friday that it was willing to reconsider the proposed deployment of missiles along the Polish border if a new security architecture could be put in place for Europe instead of the unilateral deployment of American missile shield.

Russia’s recent decision to deploy missiles along the Polish border was only a response to “the actions of particular European countries that, without even consulting with anyone, decided on the deployment of new defence means on their territories,” said Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Nice, France after the 22nd Russia-EU summit. He was referring to the American Ballistic Missile Defence interceptors and radars that are proposed to be deployed in Poland and Czech Republic.

“If we all share a common home, we need to meet and come to agreements, and this is the objective of the new treaty. We are ready to work and I am sure that the European Union can play a coordinating and very constructive part in this,” Medvedev said, addressing the media along with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. France holds the EU presidency.

EU supported the Russian proposal that the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), in which both the US and Russia are members, meet at the earliest and discuss a new comprehensive security architecture for Europe.

Sarkozy said the US should rethink its proposals for aggressive deployment of BMD systems in Europe. Until the proposed OSCE meet, “please no more talk of antimissile protection systems,” Sarkozy said.
Medvedev said that he fully agreed with the fact that “until we sign a special global agreement on ensuring European security, we should all refrain from taking any unilateral steps that would affect security. Russia has never taken any such steps on a unilateral basis.”

Medvedev said the “security mechanisms in Europe today are imperfect.” That is why “we came back to the idea of a global treaty in our discussions today. I am pleased to see that this idea is gaining supporters among the European Union leaders. A new treaty on European security or a treaty on all countries joining a pan-European security space could lay down the principles and rules for work in the future.”