Russian Ambassador to NATO Dmitry Rogozin regards the next NATO summit in May 2012 in Chicago as a deadline until which the Kremlin will be waiting for the alliance's proposals on cooperation in developing the European missile defense system. After this deadline, relations between the sides may worsen.
"The European missile defense architecture should be approved by the end of this year. The plan will be finalized at the next NATO summit in Chicago in the middle of May next year," he said in an interview with the Voice of Russia radio.
"If by that time Russia does not discover itself as an invited nation in this missile defense architecture, this will cause great problems in our relations," Rogozin said.
Russia is ready for a compromise solution in case the alliance refuses to set up joint missile defense in Europe, he said.
"We believe the only true compromise could be deployment of the fire system of U.S. missile defense at a distance from Russia’s borders equal to their range," he said.
Even if the U.S. continues to claim that the system will not be aimed against Russia, one day someone else will come to take the place of U.S. President Barack Obama "and get hold of an overly flexible system which under certain circumstances may be directed against Russia," Rogozin said.
"The meetings that we had in the Senate with the Republican minority leaders clearly showed that this part of the American political establishment does not intend to have any business with the Russian Federation and tries to use its hatred for the incumbent master of the White House to actually spoil relations on a global scale," he added.
Earlier reports said that NATO would hold its next summit in May 2012 in Chicago simultaneously with the G8 summit.
