missile defense shield

Russian envoy to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, said Friday that the latest U.S. proposals on its planned missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic contain strange elements. He said Russian experts are scrutinizing Washington's proposals brought to Moscow by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates earlier this month.

NEW DELHI: Noting that India needed an anti-missile defence, the US today talked about the possibility of cooperation in developing such a shield. "We understand India's needs for an anti-missile shield," visiting Defence Secretary Robert Gates said he held talks with his counterpart A K Antony.

President George W. Bush and the leader of the Czech Republic said Wednesday that they were close to agreeing on a plan for the United States to install an early-warning radar system in the Czech Republic, a key component of a missile defense system that has drawn stiff opposition from Russia.

Russia could aim nuclear missiles at Ukraine if it joins NATO and accepts the deployment of anti-missile defense elements on its territory, President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday. Speaking at a news conference with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, Putin said Ukraine's aspirations to join NATO would restrict its sovereignty. "That raises the question for Russia of the need for retaliatory actions," Putin said.

NATO is looking into how a planned US missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic could relate to the alliance, on both technical and political levels, its secretary general said Friday.

Signaling a tougher position in negotiations with the United States on a European anti-ballistic missile shield, Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski says the new Warsaw government is not prepared to accept U.S. plans to deploy part of the shield in Poland until all costs and risks are considered. "This is an American, not a Polish project," Sikorski said in an interview published in the weekend edition of the daily Gazeta Wyborcza.

A test of a missile defense system successfully intercepted a ballistic target, the U.S. military said on Saturday, constituting a boost to the development of an anti-missile shield program.