"This issue [of a missile shield] has never been raised and Ukraine has no intention of discussing it," Viktor Yushchenko said at a news conference in Kiev referring to a recent White House announcement that the U.S. was continuing to collaborate with Ukraine on missile defense.
The Bush administration has once again cited Ukraine on a list of 15 countries cooperating with the U.S. on its national missile defense system, the U.S. Department of Defense said Thursday.
"Today, 15 countries (including nine in NATO alone) are engaged in missile defense efforts of some kind, whether by hosting key facilities or assets on their territory or actively discussing this possibility, pursuing R&D programs, signing cooperative agreements with the U.S., or maintaining capabilities," Brian R. Green, deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategic capabilities, told the Senate Armed Services subcommittee on strategic forces.
He also said that in addition to the U.S., "the list includes Australia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Israel, India, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Taiwan, Ukraine, and the U.K."
In January, the United States announced plans to deploy elements of its missile defense system in the Czech Republic and Poland to counter possible attacks from Iran or North Korea, whose nuclear programs have provoked serious international concerns.
Russia, which has been anxious about NATO bases that have appeared in former Communist-bloc countries and ex-Soviet republics, has blasted the plans to deploy anti-missile systems in Central Europe as a national security threat and a destabilizing factor for Europe.
The Russia-NATO Council is expected to consider the U.S. missile defense plans April 19, diplomatic sources in Brussels said in March.
