The US administration is willing to negotiate with Russia on limitations to proposed US missile defense bases in Europe, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Tuesday.
No such negotiations have been set. But Washington is seeking to allay Russian concerns about the proposed system, which would be an extension of a network of radars, interceptors and command posts in the western US designed to shoot down a hostile long-range nuclear missile.
The system in Europe would be meant specifically to protect Europe from a missile launched from the Middle East. The US proposal has stirred controversy not only in Russia but also in Europe.
In Moscow, reviving Cold War-like rhetoric, the Russian military's chief of general staff warned that Russia might target elements of the system.
"If we see that the facilities pose a threat to Russia's security, the facilities will be objects for plans of our forces. Whether strategic, nuclear or otherwise -- that's a technical question," General Yuri Baluyevksy said.
His comments were among the harshest in months of Russian criticism of the US plans.
Gates, at a news conference with his Polish counterpart, ac-knowledged that Russia had concerns not only about an advanced missile-tracking radar the Pentagon wants to place in the Czech Republic, but also the associated missile interceptors that it would install in Poland.
The interceptors are intended to collide with a hostile missile during flight, destroying the target while still outside the Earth's atmosphere. The system's results during testing have been mixed.
Gates said the Russians' questions about the radar "are questions that we can answer." And he acknowledged Russian expressions of concern that the proposed interceptor base in Poland -- while not a threat to Russia now -- could later be changed in ways that would undermine the viability of Russia's offensive missile force.
"In terms of assurances that the system would not be changed years from now in a way that might be more threatening to the Russian deterrent [force], it seems to me that's a matter that could be negotiated," he said.
Gates met Polish Defense Minister Aleksander Szczyglo and later Polish President Lech Kaczynski. On Monday, he met Russian President Vladimir Putin and other government leaders in Moscow.
At the news conference, Szczyglo did not commit Poland to hosting a US missile defense base. He said Poland would have to be persuaded that the base would enhance Poland's security -- an apparent allusion to concern that it might trigger countermeasures by Russia.
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