MOSCOW, May 3 (Itar-Tass) — Russian army chief of staff, General Nikolai Makarov said Russia has no plans to deploy its missile defense facilities outside of national territory.
"We did not and do not have plans to deploy Russian missile defense facilities outside of national territory. Such an approach would exclude the influence of Russian missile defense facilities on the deterrence potential of any state, a participant in the project," Makarov said at an international conference on missile defense in Moscow on Thursday.
He reminded that at the Russia-NATO summit in Lisbon, he proposed a new approach to developing relations in missile defense: mutually advantageous cooperation with the view of joint elimination of potential missile threats to the whole European continent.
The sectoral approach to building European missile defense was proposed as the basic option. It envisioned assigning the northeastern sector of the future missile defense system to Russia. The boundaries of the sectors of responsibility of the parties had to be determined during in-depth consultations within the Russia-NATO format. The Russian proposals were based on objective prerequisites. Any technical means of missile defense, be it a radar or interceptor missile, is characterized by a certain sector of target detection or by a zone of defense. Pooling individual zones and sectors of missile defense facilities of Russia and NATO would make one European missile defense system.
The Russian missile defense facilities deployed in the west and northeast of the country could protect from missile strikes part of the territory of neighboring states and water basins, along with Russian territory.
The control of information and weapons of Russian missile defense and NATO countries could be effected in accordance with coordinated algorithms and regulations, while the moves could be coordinated from the common control enter.
Makarov regretted the fact that the partners had rejected Russia’s missile defense proposals as groundwork for further dialogue. One of the arguments against "the sectoral approach" was Article 5 of the Washington treaty which is interpreted by its signatures in such a way that the security of the alliance members cannot be ensured by a non-member.
Instead, NATO offered the idea of "cooperative" system of European missile defense, which actually implies two independent missile defense systems of Russia and NATO. "Russia could not support this approach as it did not remove its concerns," Makarov said.