Moscow warns of losing patience on NATO missile defense talks

Russia may have to develop its own security measures if the United States and NATO continue to ignore Moscow's concerns about a planned missile defense system in Europe, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday. "If our partners are going to further ignore our position, we will have to provide our own security interests by some other means. Perhaps, some particular military-technical measures will be needed," Lavrov said in a statement. The foreign minister said an agreement signed between Washington and Bucharest about deployment of U.S. missile interceptors in Romania "was only a part of a chain of events" in the last two months that confirm the U.S. intentions to realize their anti-missile plans without taking into account Russia's concerns. The United States has already inked similar agreements with Turkey, Poland and Spain. "All these happened in the background of a stalemate in the talks between Russia and Washington and NATO about the principal issue -- to anchor the judicially-binding guarantees that U.S. and NATO anti-missile defense is not targeting Russian strategic containment forces," Lavrov said. Lavrov on Monday said that talks with the United States and NATO over the missile defense system in Europe have stalled and have not produced any results so far. Moscow has long opposed the deployment of NATO missile defense facilities near its borders. It wants legally binding guarantees from the United States and NATO that the defense system is not targeting Russia.