Missile shield opens a new 'arms race'
Pastor Dale Morgan
Missile shield opens a new 'arms race'*
From correspondents in Berlin
March 18, 2007 05:17am
Article from: Agence France-Presse
GERMAN foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has commented overnight
that the US missile defence shield could be the opening salvo of a new
arms race.
The minister made the comments in an editorial in today's Frankfurter
Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung newspaper.
"Our biggest priority remains disarmament, and not re-armament," he
said. "We do not want a new arms race in Europe," he said.
He called on Russia and the US to avoid the "old reflexes" of the Cold
War, and said Europe and NATO should remain united in the debate on the
anti-missile shield.
Mr Steinmeir said discussions on the anti-missile project would "put
(US) willingness for sincere cooperation to the test."
A US project to install 10 missiles - used to intercept incoming missile
attacks - in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic has been harshly
criticised by Russia.
Russian Foreign Minister Serguei Lavrov said Saturday that the project
would have "negative repercussions" on relations between Russia and NATO.
Part of the anti-missile system are already in place in Britain and
Greenland.