Wednesday's talks follow a landmark Lisbon summit in November, when Russia agreed to allow NATO to transport more goods to Afghanistan through its territory, and explore the possibility of working with the Western alliance on the missile defence system.
NATO decided at Lisbon to deploy radars and missile interceptors to protect Europe from rogue attacks, and invited Moscow to cooperate in the project to ease Russian fears that the system was aimed against its nuclear deterrent.
But the military powers have since then offered differing visions about the shield, with NATO insisting on keeping two independent systems and Russia calling for a "sectoral" system, in which each side would shoot down missiles coming from a certain geographic area.
"We don't really get what the Russians really want," a NATO official told AFP.
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NATO Missile Defense for Europe
NATO has agreed to provide ballistic missile defense or BMD for all of Europe. This NATO BMD will protect NATO (European and American) military forces in Europe. It will also – for the very first time – protect the civilian population throughout Europe from ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction launched from the Middle East.
Much of this NATO missile defense for Europe – known as the European Phased Adaptive Approach – will actually be provided by the United States armed forces. This will include seaborne AEGIS missile defense on board US Navy ships in the Mediterranean, as well as land based radars and interceptor missiles.
This e-book describes how NATO missile defense for Europe will be organized and implemented.
