NATO to make political guarantees to Russia on missile defense: Rasmussen

NATO is poised to make some kind of political guarantees that the alliance's missile defense system in Europe is not against Russia, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Thursday, Xinhua reported. "Politically, we are ready to reiterate what we said 15 years ago in the founding act (of the NATO-Russia Council) ... Russia and NATO clearly stated that we will not use force against each other and we do not consider each other as threats," Rasmussen said after NATO foreign ministers met with their Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. "I think it makes sense to reiterate that very clear statement. We are prepared to do that," he said. At the upcoming summit in Chicago next month, NATO plans to declare "interim operational capability" for its missile defense system in Europe. NATO insists that the anti-missile shield is not targeted at Russia. However, Moscow claims the system poses a real threat to its nuclear deterrence and national security and wants legal-binding guarantees in writing. Lavrov told reporters that the political guarantees that NATO was going to make was "not enough" to dismiss Russia's security concerns. "The final stage (of the system) will pose risks to our nuclear deterrence forces ... This is not enough and we need clear guarantees that it is targeted against us," he said. In addition, Rasmussen announced that NATO has invited Russia to attend the Afghanistan meeting at NATO's Chicago summit as "Russia clearly has an interest in regional security." Lavrov said that while Russia had made important contributions to NATO's mission in Afghanistan, such as providing transit and training counter-narcotics personnel, it should attend meetings on Afghanistan "regularly." "It is just a one-time invitation ... it is unfair," he said.