MOSCOW. Oct 17 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia is alarmed by Japanese and U.S. plans to build a joint missile defense system, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said.
"Cooperation in missile defense between Japan and the United States is worrying to us. We oppose the plan to create missile defense systems which aims to ensure military superiority," Lavrov said in an interview with the Japanese news agency Kyodo Tsushin.
The interview was posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry's website on Wednesday.
"The deployment of such systems could spur a regional and global arms race," Lavrov said, adding that the foundations of strategic stability could be undermined, making the situation in the vital sphere of maintaining global balance unpredictable.
Russia has been closely following Japanese-U.S. military-political relations, seeing new tendencies in this developing alliance, Lavrov said
Lavrov also noted that a military-political triangle was being formed in Asia and the Pacific, involving the United States, Japan and Australia.
"We are convinced that regional stability can only be guaranteed if one is guided by the principles and approaches being forged and supported by all regional states orientated to multilateral and open diplomacy," the Russian foreign minister said.