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Russian FM downplays possibility of new cold war

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Russia's foreign minister said Tuesday that the current developments on the global political scene do not mean the return to a serious confrontation between Russia and the West.
MOSCOW, February 20 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's foreign minister said Tuesday that the current developments on the global political scene do not mean the return to a serious confrontation between Russia and the West.

"The current developments in the world do not point at a new variant of the "cold war," Sergei Lavrov said addressing students of the Moscow linguistic university.

He said that despite Russia's concern over the U.S. plans to deploy elements of its missile shield in Central Europe and NATO's expansion toward Russian borders the country will develop a weighted response to emerging threats to its security and will not be drawn into a confrontation or a new round of the arms race.

Moscow strongly opposes the deployment of a missile shield in its former backyard in Central Europe, describing the plans as a threat to Russian national security.

Army General Yury Baluyevsky, the chief of the Russian General Staff, voiced February 15 a strong warning to the U.S. regarding its missile shield plans by announcing a possibility of Russia unilaterally pulling out of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF).

Commander in Chief of Russia's strategic missile forces (SMF) Nikolai Solovtsov echoed Baluyevsky's remarks by saying that the SMF will be able to track down elements of the U.S. missile defense system if they are eventually deployed in Central Europe.

"If the governments of Poland and the Czech Republic make such a decision, the Strategic Missile Forces will be able to target these systems," Solovtsov said Monday.

He also said Russia possessed the technology and the capability to resume production of intermediate- and short-range missiles in the near future if the need arises.

But Lavrov reaffirmed Tuesday that Russia was not seeking a new clash with the West and urged the global community to make a choice between the arms race and the resolution of problems inherited from the past.

"In essence, we are facing a choice between the arms race and finding solutions for the problems that we have inherited from the past," the minister said, adding that the "cold war" had seriously hampered social and economic development of the world.

He said a drive to a uni-polar world order serves as a catalyst for the arms race and threatens global security.

"A stubborn desire by certain countries to pursue a virtual uni-polar world order and their attempts to impose an exaggerated emphasis on the use of force damages the foundation of international relations, especially its legal basis," Lavrov said.

"A strong and confident Russia has become a positive factor on the global arena," the minister said. "This reality has taken many people in the West by surprise, and for some it was an unpleasant surprise, although we are simply defending our interests as others do."

He reiterated that Moscow is willing to wait until its Western partners accept this reality and realize that they can build relations with Russia only on the basis of equal rights and mutual respect of interests.

"The sooner this happens the better because time is not on our side," Lavrov said.

"It is quite clear that those who attempt unilateral actions do it at their risk, but as the situation in Iraq shows everybody has to pay for the consequences of such unilateral undertakings," he said in an apparent reference to failing U.S. efforts to restore peace and order in the war-torn Middle East country.

Following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the subsequent overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime, Iraq quickly sank into sectarian violence from which it has yet to emerge.

All ongoing international efforts to restore peace and stability there have so far proved futile, and Russia, which has always opposed the war in Iraq, has repeatedly called on the international community to withdraw foreign troops from the country.

"Our foreign policy remains unchanged - we are striving to create favorable conditions for our domestic reforms and preserve the proven principles of our diplomacy that include pragmatism rather than ideology, multi-vector relations rather than closed clubs of nations, and zealous but non-confrontational protection of our national interests," the foreign minister said.

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