Russian expert Oksana Antonenko: NATO contribution not clear in talks over missile shield. NATO countries' only contribution is their own territory

The missile shield is rather a Russian-American issue and the NATO contribution is unclear in talks on the matter, as Alliance member countries only contribute with their territory, says Russian expert Oksana Antonenko in an interview with HotNews.ro. She says that should some NATO countries oppose Russia’s participation to the Us integrated project and NATO, the US would only distance itself from the Alliances towards cooperation with Russia.

• Oksana Antonenko is a researcher for the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London and head of the program for Russia and Eurasia. She delivers analyses on the domestic, foreign and security policies in Russia and CIS countries. You can hear the interview here

Key ideas of the interview:

• Unless NATO redefines in Lisbon a new mission to bring cooperation with Russia closer, more ambitiously and more comprehensively, NATO’s relevance would diminish in the coming years
• NATO needs cooperation with Russia to the missile shield because, as opposed to Europeans, Russia has money and technology to invest in the project
• Should the US and Russia find a way to cooperate in the future and the course of the current dialog remains with no political difficulties arising during the process, than we could talk about an American-Russian cooperation for global stability
• The caution of some NATO member states towards Russia may be overcome by means of trustbuilding as contingency plans are not a solution to assure NATO members
• If NATO finds a way to build a relationship with Russia to remove any potential threat in a future situation, the caution of some member states regarding the cooperation with the missile shield will not block this cooperation but will only complicate the future role of NATO in this matter, as she believes.