Russia
will not be drawn into new arms race - Medvedev
MOSCOW,
July 15 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's president set out new foreign
policy guidelines on Tuesday, stating that the country would
resist being pulled into a new arms race and criticizing NATO's
ongoing expansion, the Kremlin said.
Speaking
to senior Russian diplomats at the Foreign Ministry, Dmitry
Medvedev said a new arms race would be harmful to Russia's
economy and development.
Medvedev
said "the danger of a large-scale war, including a nuclear
war, being unleashed has been reduced considerably,"
and that the world had largely overcome Cold War stereotypes
and ideological confrontation.
He
said Russia was opposed to both the deployment of weapons
in outer space and unilateral missile defense projects, and
proposed establishing a joint system to respond to possible
missile strikes.
This
statement was an apparent reference to U.S. plans to put weapons
in space and deploy elements of its missile defense shield
in Central Europe.
Moscow
has repeatedly said that U.S. missile shield plans would undermine
global stability and trigger an arms race.
U.S.
officials have argued the measures are needed to provide protection
from possible missile attacks from 'rogue' nations such as
Iran.
Medvedev
proposed talks with other nuclear powers on cutting strategic
offensive weapons to a minimum sufficient to maintain strategic
stability.
The
president also said that military-political blocs were unable
to address modern challenges and threats and proposed a broader
"network diplomacy" to tackle them.
The
U.S. missile plans, coupled with NATO's expansion toward Russian
borders prompted Moscow to temporarily withdraw from the Conventional
Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty, a crucial arms control
arrangement, in mid-December 2007.
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