Within the recent months, relations between the United States and Russia have been tense at best due to the missile defense shield. Back in 2007, then-Russian President Vladimir Putin had given warning about the United States missile shield program. He had addressed leaders of the European Union about that regard.
Putin had compared it to what started the Cuban Missile Crisis back in the 1960s. Russia has long opposed the plans to build missile bases in both Poland and the Czech Republic.
Poland has already given a stipulation that the United States must help modernize the country’s military forces if it wants to build a missile base in the country.
Several months ago, current Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and Chinese President Hu Jintao blasted the missile shield plan. US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates had said that the US is prepared to share some of the missile defense technology with China.
Recently, Medvedev has retracted his threats of deploying missiles on Europe’s border. This came as a result of persuasion of French President Nicholas Sarkozy, who is the current head of the EU President.
However, Medvedev had a stipulation. He wants Democratic US President-elect Barack Obama to join Russian and France on a conference on European security. Sarkozy also wants the US to carefully rethink about the missile defense shield.
He also said that the missile defense shield will do nothing for security in Europe.
In an ironic revelation, it was revealed that Iran has successfully fired off a new surface-to-surface missile that uses solid fuel instead of liquid fuel. So far, these missiles can strike Israel and Southeastern Europe with excellent precison.