Warsaw: NATO needs to develop an
anti-missile defence system with future nuclear and missile
threats not always likely to come from only governments or
even "rational actors", the alliance chief said on Friday.
"We must develop an effective missile defence," NATO
Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told an international
conference in the Polish capital.
"In the coming years we will probably face many more
countries and possibly even some non-state actors armed with
long-range missiles and nuclear capabilities," he said.
Rasmussen said a system for protection against missiles
should be part of NATO`s policy of deterring such threats.
"Deterrence works against rational actors but not all
actors that we will have to deal with in the future will be
rational.
"That`s why deterrence and defence need to go together
and why we have the obligation to look into the missile
defence options," he said.
Anti-missile defence systems already in place within the
NATO alliance fall under a US shield that has missile
interceptors in the United States, Greenland and Britain.
Plans for it to be extended into eastern Europe have
raised concern in Russia.
The system called for by Rasmussen would include the US
shield.
PTI
