The move has provoked the ire of Russian defence chiefs who claim the shield will threaten peace in Europe.
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Stoltenberg joined Romania’s prime minister, Dacian Ciolos, and U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Bob Work at a U.S. Navy base near rural Deveselu, where 24 SM-3 missiles are now loaded in launchers for use against short- to intermediate-range ballistic missiles.
Stoltenberg said the missile installation “represents a significant increase in the capability to defend European allies against proliferation of ballistic missiles” as it becomes part of a broader North Atlantic Treaty Organisation missile shield with an installation in Poland as well.
The operation of the missile shield is likely to further exacerbate relations between Moscow and Washington, which have been tense since Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014.
The deployment of NATO’s missile defense base in Romania is creating considerable risks to Russia’s security, Russian Permanent Representative to NATO Alexander Grushko said on Thursday, commenting on putting on combat duty of a NATO missile defense base in Deveselu, Romania.
And Russia’s ambassador to Nato, Alexander Grushko, said he was not “convinced by Nato declarations that the American anti-missile system is not aimed at Russia”.
“It is part of the military and political containment of Russia”, Andrey Kelin, a senior Russian Foreign Ministry official, said on Thursday, the Interfax news agency reported. On May 13, construction of a second missile defense installation will begin.
The agreement between the USA and Romania on the deployment of the ballistic missile defense system in Romania was signed in September 2011 and work on the base started at the end of October 2013.
On May 13, the United States and Poland will hold a ground-breaking ceremony for the U.S. Aegis Ashore missile defense system to be located in Redzikowo, Poland.
“This site, nor the site in Poland, has any capability – none whatsoever – to undermine Russia’s strategic deterrent”, Work said. That is part of a US strategy that includes missile interceptors in California and Alaska.
Meanwhile, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying the United States and NATO’s activation of a missile shield in Romania is in violation of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty signed in 1987.
Meanwhile, Russia has warned that the U.S. is breaching the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty signed in 1987.
Russia does not look favorably upon NATO’s growing deployment of missiles and nuclear weapons near its borders, with Russian President Vladimir Putin saying in June previous year that if threatened by NATO, Moscow will respond to the threat accordingly.
“That is why, special attention in the development of new missile complexes is paid to the issue of overcoming the [U.S.] missile shield”, Karakayev said. A USA miss.
Russian Federation and U.S. -NATO relations have been sour since Russian Federation annexed Crimea in 2014; the missile shield is the latest instance of mounting tension.
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Poland ditched conscription in 2008, but Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the war in eastern Ukraine appear to have persuaded numerous country’s people that it should now return.
