NEW YORK, September 24 (RIA Novosti) - Russia hopes NATO member states will take part in Russia's initiative to set up a non-strategic missile defense system for Europe, the country's foreign minister said.
The initiative proposes "forming a multilateral pool of interested states, primarily European ones, and we want NATO member states to understand this, and commit themselves," Sergei Lavrov told journalists after a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.
The Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union, which was in force from 1972 to 2002, banned the building of large-scale missile defense systems in the Soviet Union (and subsequently Russia), and in the U.S.
In December 2001, the U.S. announced its decision to quit the ABM treaty, a move Russia called a mistake.
In May 2002, the U.S. President George W. Bush and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin adopted a joint declaration on new strategic relations, including in the missile defense sphere. Russia and the U.S. agreed to implement measures to strengthen trust and expand transparency in missile defense, including information exchange and reciprocal visits to missile defense sites.
The policy was confirmed in a joint statement by the two countries' leaders in 2003.
The initiative proposed by the Russian side on non-strategic missile defense for Europe is reflected in a corresponding statement by the Russian president in 2000, and was registered in a Russia-NATO declaration in 2002. Practical work is being conducted within a special working group under the Russia-NATO Council.
