Munich conference opens with NATO warning of excessive weapons reductions

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has warned EU defense
 officials about further arms reductions.

Rasmussen said that over the past two years NATO's military expenditure in
European countries decreased by $45 billion, which is equal to the
entire defense budget of Germany. At the same time, he noted, over the
past decade, China, for example, has increased its expenditure on defense
several times, and India by 60%.

The "Munich Davos" Security Conference will continue until Sunday.
This year, the central themes of the Munich security conference are
European security strategy and cooperation between NATO and Russia in
this regard, joint plans for the NATO countries and Russia on
implementation of missile defense systems and the political situation
in Egypt.