Russia Uncomfortable With U.S Warship Presence In Black Sea Naval Exercise

Foreign Ministry Of Russia on Sunday made it clear that Russia was not happy with the presence of US guided missile cruiser Monterrey equipped with the AEGIS ballistic missile defence system in the Ukrainian-U.S. naval drills called Sea Breeze 2011 in the Black Sea.

"While leaving aside the unsettled issue of a possible European missile shield architecture, Russia would like to know, in compliance with the Russia-NATO Lisbon summit decisions, what 'aggravation' the U.S. command meant by moving the basic strike unit of the regional missile defense grouping being formed by NATO in the region, from the Mediterranean to the east," the ministry said in a statement.


“The Russian side has repeatedly stressed that we shall not leave unnoticed any elements of U.S. strategic infrastructure in the immediate vicinity of our borders and that we shall take such steps as a threat to our security,” the ministry said in its statement. “We have to state that our concerns are still being ignored and that screened by talk about cooperation in the area of anti-missile defence this very anti-missile shield configuration is being formed in Europe, while we have repeatedly warned our U.S. and NATO partners about its dangerous consequences. Moreover, it is being done blatantly as though to demonstrate Russia that no one is going to take its opinion into consideration. Such an approach in no way promotes joint efforts to outline the concept and architecture of the future missile defence system in Europe, as was agreed in Lisbon and at meetings between the Russian and U.S. presidents.”

"The mere fact that the very first phase of the U.S. administration’s ‘adaptive approach’ is accompanied by such ‘surprises’ testifies to the high level of strategic vagueness the U.S. missile defence program creates,” the Russian Foreign Ministry went on. “The question is quite logic whether oral warranties that it is not targeted against Russia could be trusted.”

“U.S. missile cruiser’s reconnoitering of the Black Sea waters once again proves the necessity to spell out clear legal guarantees that anti-missile defence infrastructure that is being deployed in Europe is not targeted against Russia’s nuclear deterrence potential. Such guarantees should be based on objective criteria making it possible to see to it that missile defence systems meet their stated goals, i.e. to repel missile threats originating from outside Europe. It is likewise vital to ensure Russia’s equal participation in the development of the concept and architecture of the European missile defence system and to work out relevant measures of building up trust and transparency,” the statement said.

According to the ministry's statement, Monterrey was sent to European waters as part of the U.S. administration's phased adaptive approach to building the European segment of the global missile shield. The program's first stage envisages the deployment of a group of U.S. warships in the Adriatic, Aegean and Mediterranean Seas to protect South Europe from possible missile strikes.

This according to the Russians is aggravating the matters related to the already complicated European Missile Shield Plans. The problem is that Poland and Romania are important sites to detect and defend against Iranian missiles but same sites can be used against Russian missiles too thus nullifying Russian capability against the western powers.