LISBON, (Reuters) – NATO leaders agreed yesterday to develop a missile defence shield linking systems in the United States and Europe to protect member states against long-range attacks from regions such as the Middle East.
U.S. officials said the protective umbrella, which will be deployed in stages from next year until 2020, would be capable of intercepting long-range and intercontinental ballistic missiles.
U.S. interceptor missiles and radar will be stationed in Europe under a plan which NATO officials say will require the 28 NATO states to invest 200 million euros ($280 million) to link existing anti-missile systems to the U.S. system. “It offers a role for all of our allies. It responds to the threats of our times,” U.S. President Barack Obama told reporters at a NATO summit in Lisbon.
The leaders will invite Moscow, NATO’s former Cold War enemy, to join the system when they meet Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Lisbon on Saturday.
“Tomorrow we look forward to working with Russia to build our cooperation with them in this area as well, recognising that we share many of the same threats,” Obama said.
NATO hopes to ease Russia’s concerns about what the system aims to do, and involve the Kremlin at some level without compromising the years of work that have already been done on preparing a missile defence system.
Obama said the plans would be built around the U.S. system known as the Phased Adaptive Approach which he announced last year.
This will involve the stationing of ship-based interceptors in the Mediterranean from 2011, followed by land-based interceptors in Romania from 2015 and in Poland from 2018.
The United States is also keen to station a forward radar in Turkey, another NATO member state.
NATO officials previously said the system was intended to counter missile threats from the Middle East, in particular Iran. By 2020 it will be able to defend against the longest range Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles.
NATO sources said that, following Turkish objections to singling out states such as Iran as a threat, NATO would not identify Iran in a summit statement.
But the sources said leaders would continue to make clear where they believe the main danger comes from, and a U.S. official highlighted the threat from the Middle East.
“This is a phased system and if the threat of long-range missiles, ICBMS, develops, this system will be capable of actually intercepting those missiles coming from the Middle East,” said Ivo Daalder, the U.S. ambassador to NATO.
