No U.S. anti-missile shield proposed here: Latvia

Latvia's Ministry of Defence said the United States has never proposed deploying its anti-missile shield in the Baltic country, the News Today newspaper reported on Wednesday.

This comes after General Pyotr Deinekin, a former Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Air Force said last week, "We should expect the deployment of their (the U.S.) intermediate and short-range missiles in the former countries of the Warsaw Pact, including in the Baltic States" following their steps in East Europe.

In that case, Russia should take actions to contain and also to eliminate these facilities, Deinekin said.

"Latvia didn't get any proposals on deploying anti-missile system from the U.S. or any other countries," said Airis Rikveilis, a defence ministry spokesman.

Rikveilis said the Russian's remarks was groundless and aggressive, and only served to provoke tension between Baltic nations and Moscow.

The U.S. is seeking to deploy a missile defense radar in the Czech Republic and interceptor missiles in Poland as part of a U.S.-built shield against ballistic missiles.

Washington said the missile defense system is not targeted at Russia, but the plan has nevertheless drawn sharp criticism from Moscow.

Source: Xinhua