The US should take Russia’s concerns over missile defense seriously if it wants to protect its own security interests in relation to Iran, says Tony Lloyd, chair of the Global Security and Non-proliferation.
“If we are talking about missile defense, we’ve got to take the whole world with us and part of that process is America or NATO saying to Russia ‘We recognize your security concerns, nuclear and non-nuclear,” Lloyd said.
“We’ve got to put the whole question of nuclear weapons into the very big picture of the security needs of the different nations involved.”
In the meantime, Tim Marshall, Foreign Affairs editor at Sky News says there is nothing unusual about Russia’s decision to reserve the right to pull out of the START treaty if US missile defense potential expands too far.
“Countries always make statements like that, especially countries as big as Russia and the US,” Marshall explained. “I don’t see it as being set in concrete. I think it’s a hedged bet on the side. I think it is a little warning to the Americans ‘you’ve already backed down a little bit on where you are going to put your missile defense, so we are giving you a warning that we are still saying we don’t want you to at all.”