US urges Russia to join defense programme as “equal partner”

Meanwhile, the United States urged Russia on Wednesday to join its planned missile defense as “equal partners”, playing down Moscow’s warning about taking retaliatory action. White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Washington was interested in developing a missile defense system between the United States, Russia and Europe, with everyone participating as equal partners. He said the system was not aimed against Russia, adding that Moscow’s missile arsenal “absolutely dwarfed” it. According to inside sources Moscow fears that the radar system could be pointed into Russia for intelligence-gathering purposes. Prague has rejected Moscow’s demand that it be allowed to have permanent military inspectors at the site, on the grounds that it did not want even a small Russian military presence on Czech soil.