Russia is inviting EU and CIS countries to conduct a joint assessment of potential missile threats and is hoping to resume missile defense dialogue with NATO, the foreign minister said Wednesday,the RIA Novosti news agency reported April 4.

“We agree that we need a thorough and joint assessment of technological, strategic and political issues related to European missile defense, said Sergei Lavrov, adding that Russia is ready to participate in these efforts.

The issue of the European missile shield has led to heated debates following the U.S. proposal earlier this year to deploy elements of its missile defense in Poland and the Czech Republic, citing possible threats from Iran or North Korea as a reason for the program.

Russia sees the prospective deployment as a threat to its own national security, and fears the base may trigger a new arms race.

Speaking at the Yerevan State University in the capital of Armenia, the minister said that Russia had never opposed joint efforts in preventing potential threats, but these efforts must be authentically collective and the threats must be real.

”Any unilateral moves in the sphere of missile defense should be seen as attempts to split Europe,“ Lavrov said.

”This is the reason why we regard the unilateral decision to place elements of the U.S. missile defense in Central and Eastern Europe as a potential risk to Russia and the whole of Europe,“ he said.

At the same time, Lavrov expressed hope that a spoken agreement between U.S. and Russian Presidents George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin last week to discuss in detail U.S. plans ”would allow the participants to resume collective dialogue and cooperation between Russia and the NATO on missile defense.“

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