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Deal between Russia, NATO on missile defense still possible

Xinhua, March 24, 2012

• Russia and NATO are still likely to come to terms on the missile defense issue as the door is still open for the two sides to have talks on the matter, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Friday.

  Speaking at a Euro-Atlantic security conference, the Russian president recalled some examples of successful interaction between Russia and NATO in the past years, saying that he was convinced the missile defense issue would be approached in the same way and then everything would be worked out well.

  "To reach mutually acceptable agreements is in our interests," Medvedev said, adding that "we can come to terms."

  However, he warned that the time for such dialogues was "running out," indicating the two sides should move at a much faster pace.

  Medvedev also reiterated that there should be a legal document to guarantee that the U.S. missile shield in Europe would not target Russia.

  He said that the attempt to create a European missile shield without taking Russia's interest into account was an attempt to break nuclear parity.

  During the conference, the president also called on NATO to advance relations with the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a body comprising Russia and six other Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries.

  Moscow has failed to obtain written and legal guarantees that the U.S. missile shield in Europe will not target Russia. Disputes over the missile system have prompted Medvedev to threaten in November to take strong countermeasures, including the deployment of contemporary missile systems in the western and southern parts of Russia.

  The missile defense shield involves the deployment of U.S. interceptor missiles and radars in Europe and is scheduled to be completed by 2020. The system will then be capable of intercepting long-range and intercontinental ballistic missiles.

  Moscow has long opposed the deployment of U.S.-led NATO missile defense facilities near its border.

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