Putin-Trump meeting touches on American antimissile defense system

The US global anti-missile defense system came up in the talks between Russian president Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump, held in Helsinki on July 16. The anti-missile system also includes components that are hosted in Romania, at the Deveselu military base, in the southwestern part of the country. While speaking of the responsibility for maintaining international security and of the shared work concerning the disarmament agenda, the Russian president mentioned the global American anti-missile defense system. “We believe it necessary to work together further to interact on the disarmament agenda, military, and technical cooperation. This includes the extension of the Strategic Offensive Arms Limitation Treaty. It's a dangerous situation with the global American anti-missile defense system; it's the implementation issues with the INF treaty; and, of course, the agenda of non-placement of weapons in space,” Putin said at the news conference following the meeting, quoted by CNN. Russia has criticized before the anti-missile systems set up in Romania and Poland within the NATO framework. In 2017, it labeled Romania a “clear threat” to its security, and as a NATO outpost, due to the fact that the country hosts elements of a U.S. anti-missile system. The antimissile defense system Aegis Ashore at Deveselu became operational in 2016. It has been designed as a defense system against attacks from outside Europe, such as potential ones from Iran. editor@romania-insider.com