Russia does not appoint or conjure up enemies. A pronouncement about this by its NATO Ambassador Dmitri Rogozin was quickly followed by a similar one from Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Indeed, Russia’s cooperation on missile defence and other matters with NATO does not hold any particular third party in its sights. It is focused on potential, not actual, threats.
The third party in question is of course Iran, which NATO believes has to be confronted with a Europe-based missile defence system.
Russia disagrees, arguing Iran is light years away from acquiring missile systems that can hit Europe.
The matter is on the agenda of the next NATO-Russia summit in Lisbon on November 20th….
According to NATO spokesman James Appathurai, even some common ground on missile defence is a possibility.
The Russian delegation in Brussels was led by Anatoli Antonov, the same diplomat who successfully negotiated the latest Russian-American strategic arms reduction treaty, signed at a summit in Prague on April 8th.
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