Nato will announce the completion of the first stage of a controversial missile defence shield at a May summit that will not include Russian leader Vladimir Putin, its chief said Monday. Nato secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the Western military bloc intended to announce the deployment of the first "interim" phase of a missile defence shield for Europe at the summit in Chicago.
The US-backed system has been bitterly opposed by Russia and has remained one of the main stumbling blocks in Moscow's recent relations with Washington. "I can confirm that it is our intention to declare what we call an interim capability of the Nato system. That is part of the first phase of the development of the Nato missile defence system," Rasmussen said in a video conference with Moscow reporters.
However he confirmed that Putin is expected to miss the May 20-21 meeting when he pays his first visit to the United States since his March 4 election to a third term as president. Rasmussen said he and Putin had agreed by telephone that their summit was unlikely to go ahead in Chicago "due to the very busy domestic schedule in Russia." He stressed that he was still planning to meet Putin soon after his May 7 Kremlin inauguration. Putin is still scheduled to visit the United States in May for the G8 summit in Camp David.
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