BELGRADE: Russia could take steps of “a technically military nature” if its objections to Nato's planned missile defence system are not heeded, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a Serbian daily on Tuesday.
“If our partners in the future continue to ignore our position, then we should protect our interests by other means and for that, concrete measures might be needed to the response of a technically military nature,” Lavrov told Belgrade's Vecernje Novosti in an interview published on Tuesday.
“We do not wish such development,” he added.
Lavrov made his comments in light of the deal signed in mid-September between Washington and Serbia's neighbour Romania to host US missile interceptors.
His comments come on the same day when the Romanian President Traian Basescu was due to visit Belgrade.
“I am forced to conclude that the signing of the deal (between Bucharest and Washington) is an additional link in a chain of events that shows that the US is stepping up the plans to construct their missile shield without taking into account the Russia's concerns,” Lavrov said.
On Monday, Lavrov said in Moscow that Russia wants to break the deadlock over the missile shield in Europe by holding the talks between the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his US counterpart Barack Obama.
According to Nato and Washington, the planned Europe-wide ballistic missile shield is aimed at thwarting missile threats from Iran. But Moscow has expressed its concern that the shield could target Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles and could be used as nuclear deterrents.
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