U.S. missile shield deployment would force Iskander move - Lavrov

MOSCOW, February 11 (RIA Novosti) - Russia`s foreign minister reiterated on Wednesday that Moscow would be forced to position missiles on the EU border if U.S. missile defense components were deployed in Central Europe.

After European security talks in Moscow with the foreign ministers of the Czech Republic and Sweden, the EU foreign policy chief and the EU external relations commissioner, Sergei Lavrov said the issue of a third site for Washington`s global missile defense system had not been discussed in detail.

"We do not mean our possible response to the deployment of the Third Site as a threat, and this has long since been made clear. This would be merely a forced military-technical step in the event that the Third Site is physically created," he said.

"If it is not created no reaction will follow from Russia," the minister added.

Washington has agreed with Warsaw and Prague plans to deploy 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic by 2013. The United States says the defenses are needed to deter possible strikes from "rogue states" such as Iran.

Russia has consistently opposed the missile shield as a threat to its national security and the security balance in Europe. President Dmitry Medvedev threatened in November to retaliate if the plans go ahead by deploying Iskander-M missiles in the country`s westernmost exclave of Kaliningrad, which borders NATO members Poland and Lithuania.

Top Russian officials have repeatedly expressed the hope that President Barack Obama would not follow through with his predecessor`s missile defense plans.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said at a security conference in Munich on Saturday that the United States would continue to work on the missile shield, but would also consult Russia on this issue.

sections: Politics