On Tuesday Russia and NATO again weren't able to come to an agreement about placing of a new U.S. missile defense shield for Europe.

      Russia complained of a lack of progress in its talks with NATO after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Baconschi had signed the agreement in Washington about hosting of missile interceptors on Romania's territory.

      In its statement the Russian Foreign Ministry said that the agreement with Romania on the deployment at the former Air Force base Deveselu of the land-based SM-3 ballistic missile defense system shows that U.S. are in a hurry to finish its immediate anti-missile plans without paying any attention to Russia-NATO dialogues on the topic of the missile shield.

      Earlier Washington has scrapped a previous missile shield, based in Poland and the Czech Republic, which had angered Russia.

      But some experts believe that Washington never gave up an idea to get close to Russian borders. “The US won’t give that guarantee because the US indeed intends to use the missile defense shield as part of the first-strike threat capability against Russia and China in the future,” Brian Becker from Answer, the Act Now to Stop War and End Racism coalition, said.

      In their turn, NATO and the United States continue to insist that the shield would defend NATO members against missiles from North Korea and Iran and would not be directed at Russia.

Sources: Gazeta.ru RIA Novosti

      Image: Newskey