Russia does not want arms race with West: Kremlin aide
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An arms race with the United States should be avoided, Russian presidential aide Arkady Dvorkovich said Tuesday.
Dvorkovich spoke in reference to President Dmitry Medvedev's annual address before both houses of parliament.
Medvedev said during the 75-minute address that if Moscow and the West fail to reach an agreement on missile defense in the next 10 years, a new arms race would start.
"The applause heard from the right-side sector of the audience was premature because the president's opinion of this scenario is negative. He thinks, of course, that an agreement must be forged and that all other scenarios would be bad," Dvorkovich said.
If NATO unilaterally implements its missile defense system, "we will have to produce our systems, deploy them on the far borders and to develop technical systems," he warned.
However, elaborating of any concrete actions will be "a matter of military officials," he said.
The Kremlin aide meanwhile voiced hope that the United States could ratify the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) in the near future.
"We hope the ratification will pass. At least the steps taken by our American partners demonstrate that they are interested in earnest in the ratification and they are doing their utmost to achieve this goal," said Dvorkovich.
During the Lisbon summit, Russia accepted NATO's invitation to join in the creation of a missile defense shield in Europe.
