The US missile defense system base goes live in Romania

Today an event took place in connection with the commissioning of the US missile complex ‘Aegis Eshor’ deployed near the village of Deveselu in Romania. Thus, the United States completed the second phase of the ‘Phased Adaptive Approach’ for deployment of the elements of its global missile defense system in Europe announced in 2009. Now Washington is launching the third phase, during which it intends, inter alia, to deploy ‘Aegis Eshor’ with the advanced interceptor missiles Standard-3 with the IIA modification in Poland. A so-called ‘ceremony’ in connection with the construction of the base of interceptor missiles is planned for tomorrow in the village of Redzikowo.

For years, the Russian side has repeatedly drawn attention to the risks to international security and strategic stability, which are created by the unilateral and unfettered deployment of the US strategic missile defense system. "We have offered various options for resolving the situation around missile defense and were willing to cooperate closely, including up to the creation of an antimissile architecture in Europe together with NATO, built on the principle of ‘sectors’ which could really protect the region from possible missile threats  outside the Euro-Atlantic area and thus would not undermine strategic parity. ‘’I would particularly like to focus your attention on this passage – here lies the crux of the problem. However, the United States and its allies have refused to move in this direction. Also, they did not agree to establish in a legally binding manner that the created missile defense system is not directed against Russia. Then a discussion with the Russian side of possible solutions to the problem of the global missile defense system has been completely phased out by Washington's initiative. The missile-building is continued on a scale much greater than the declared goals,’’ the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry considers the destructive activities of the US and its allies in the field of missile defense as a direct threat to international and regional security and stability. "Thus, the strategic situation in Europe becomes significantly complicated. We should also note a number of other problematic issues that are associated with the creation of missile defense facilities in Europe. So, the ‘Aegis Eshor’ anti-missile systems placed in Romania and Poland include launchers, actually identical to those used on the US Navy ships to run  interceptor missiles and cruise missiles, the medium-range missiles ‘Tomahawk’. We regard the emergence of such launchers on land as running counter to one of the key provisions of the INF Treaty. Therefore the United States has violated the INF Treaty. It is necessary to say openly, without any further diplomatic wording. Russia has repeatedly pointed to the danger of the negative scenario of the development of the situation in the field of missile defense, but our concerns are still ignored. We reach the appropriate conclusions, including in the context of the adoption of the military-technical measures of the response,’’ Zakharova said.