Russia Presses Bulgaria over US Missile Shield

Russia is demanding that Bulgaria explains in details its planned involvement in a new US missile defence system in Europe which came as an unwelcome surprise to Moscow.

"I repeat that we are waiting for detailed explanations, which have been promised to us," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Sunday upon his arrival to Nicaragua for a one-day official visit, as cited by the RIA Novosti news agency.

"We have already asked our partners in Washington... what does this all mean and why after the Romanian 'surprise' there is a Bulgarian 'surprise' now," Lavrov said.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said on Friday he supports plans for taking part in a new US missile defence system in Europe.

James Warlick, the U.S. ambassador to Bulgaria, said earlier in the week that the United States was holding informal talks with the Balkan country on hosting elements of a U.S. missile shield on its soil.

Warlick played down Russian fears about the system by reiterating President Barack Obama's statement that America wanted "a strong, peaceful, and prosperous Russia."

"The United States will not ask the Bulgarian government or people to choose between Moscow and Washington," he added.

Neighboring Romania announced last week that it would host interceptor missiles as part of a U.S. missile defense system on its soil.

A US State Department official said earlier the facilities in Romania are to become operational by 2015 and are designed as protection against "current and emerging ballistic missile threats from Iran."

The planned deployment in Bulgaria and Romania comes after US President Barack Obama scrapped plans for a radar and interceptor missiles in the Czech Republic and Poland, which Russia fiercely opposed as a national security threat and a blow on its nuclear deterrent.

Former US president George W. Bush's administration devised the missile defense plan, saying that it was a precautionary measure against attacks from the so called 'rogue states' like Iran and North Korea.

During his visit to Bulgaria in June 2007 George Bush held talks with the country's government, a staunch US ally, which was concerned it may be left out of the plan, which would include bases in Poland and the Czech Republic.

The issue has contributed to raised tensions between the US and Russia, which responded furiously to what it saw as an encroachment in the former Soviet bloc and threatened to deploy its own missile system in Kaliningrad, an exclave near Poland.

Bush's successor President Barack Obama has launched discussions with potential host countries on a revamped missile defense approach.

• 1