Romania – not Europe, ABM-not weapons

A new US ABM (anti-ballistic missiles) system will be deployed in Romania, stated Romania's president Traian Basescu who said to receive this proposal from US president Barack Obama.

Basescu's statement traditionally says that: "missiles are not directed against Russia".

Last September, Barack Obama declared the revision of ABM deployment strategy pushed by the then-president George W.Bush. The US says that the system is aimed at protecting against possible launches of ballistic missiles from Iran or North Korea. But «the third position area» for some reason should be located in Eastern Europe. Barack Obama postponed land-based ABM deployments in Poland and the Czech Republic till 2015 and decided to place interceptors on board the ships patrolling the coasts of Europe.

All these changes were to show the thaw in relations with Moscow (the so-called "reset") as Moscow was, naturally, alarmed with missiles near its borders.  Washington especially underlined that «Russia's concerns» were considered while working out a new strategy. Suddenly ABMs appear in Romania. Experts believe they are not dangerous for Russia. The head of the International Security Center at the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexey Arbatov shares this opinion.

The new deployment is not threat to Russia at all. When Russia objected to ABM deployments in Poland it said that if the US needs to control Iran it should place them more to the south. Now, if Romania is willing to deploy ABM we shouldn't   object to it. A missile from Romania   cannot hit our launch base. Moreover, these are not the type of missiles   which were planned to be deployed in Poland. These are Standard- class missiles, which are less powerful (end).

It is always politically unpleasant when you are surrounded by weapons, the expert says. Though, taking into consideration the "reset", Washington could have warned Moscow.