MOSCOW. Nov 3 (Interfax) - NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said he thinks that Russia and the alliance could start to cooperate in building a European missile defense shield immediately.
Russia and NATO could launch such cooperation right now, and an appropriate decision could be made at the Russia-NATO summit in Lisbon, Rasmussen said at a news conference in Moscow on Wednesday.
Russia and the alliance could resume cooperation in missile defense first to protect deployed military units and then the civilian population of Europe, the NATO chief said.
Russia and NATO worked together on missile defense issues previously and held joint theater missile defense exercises until 2008, he said.
The next step would be NATO's efforts to turn theater missile defense systems into territorial missile defense systems, in which the alliance would like to cooperate with Russia, Rasmussen said.
Rasmussen said he was deeply convinced that such contacts would help boost the security of Russia and NATO, promote confidence building measures and enhance transparency.
The NATO chief said he had forwarded concrete suggestions regarding joint work on missile defense issues to Russia.
Rasmussen said he hoped NATO and Russia would be able to reach an agreement.
Any questions Russia could have about a proposed missile defense shield are totally justified, he said.
NATO does not want to impose any specific missile defense architecture on Russia, Rasmussen said, adding that the sides should discuss these issues together.