NATO Says Russian Missile Plan on Baltic Sea Is ‘Waste of Money’
January 19, 2012, 6:39 AM ESTBy Milda Seputyte
Jan. 19 (Bloomberg) -- North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Russian proposals to bolster military forces in its Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad would be “a waste of money.”
The Russian government has warned it may respond to the U.S.-led plan to position parts of a missile shield in eastern Europe by stationing its own strike missiles on its southern and western flanks, including Iskander rockets in Kaliningrad, located between NATO and European Union members Poland and Lithuania.
“These Russian statements are a matter of concern for NATO allies,” Rasmussen told a news conference in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, today. “It is a complete waste of Russian financial resources because it is a build-up of offensive military capacity directed against an artificial enemy. An enemy that doesn’t exist, because NATO has no intention whatsoever to attack Russia.”
Russia should instead invest its resources in economic development and the creation of jobs, he said.
“I would encourage the Russians to face the new reality,” Rasmussen said. “We’re not enemies, we’re not adversaries, we should be partners. It would be of mutual benefit if we developed peaceful cooperation.”
--Editors: Leon Mangasarian, Andrew Langley.
To contact the reporter on this story: Milda Seputyte in Vilnius at mseputyte@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net
