Republicans bash Obama on missile defence

September 22nd, 2009 MOSCOW - Russia's defence budget will rise by 8 percent in 2010 to reach $36 billion, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said Tuesday. The defence allocation in 2009 is expected to fetch $33 billion, with $10.9 billion being spent on purchases and maintenance of military equipment.

September 19th, 2009 MOSCOW - The Russian defence ministry confirmed Saturday that the country scrapped plans to deploy missiles near Poland after the US shelved its nuclear missile shield plans for Europe. Vladimir Popovkin said on the Ekho Moskvy radio station that US President Barack Obama's decision earlier this week made the deployment of Iskander tactical missiles in the Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad unnecessary.

September 18th, 2009 SINGAPORE - Singapore and Australia are conducting a joint naval exercise in the South China Sea Sep 18-25, officials said. Navies of the two countries will conduct a range of exercise such as surveillance, air defence and anti-submarine warfare, Singapore's defence ministry said.

September 17th, 2009 MOSCOW - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday that Russia valued US President Barack Obama's decision to scrap plans for a missile shield in Central Europe. Obama announced earlier Thursday that Washington was dropping its previous plans to deploy elements of a missile shield in the Czech Republic and Poland because the Iran threat is perceived in a different way.

September 17th, 2009 PRAGUE - Expectations that the US is to scrap a planned missile defence system in eastern Europe grew Thursday, with the Czech prime minister saying that US President Barack Obama told him Washington was pulling out of the project. "Today shortly after midnight, American President Barack Obama contacted me by telephone to inform me that his government is pulling out from the plan to build a radar for the anti-missile defence system on the territory of the Czech Republic," Jan Fischer told journalists in Prague.

July 11th, 2009 BAKU/MOSCOW - In the row over the US missile defence project in central Europe, the US is again considering a proposal by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to use a radar facility in Azerbaijan, Russian media reported Saturday. US Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg held talks on the issue days after a meeting between Putin and US President Barack Obama, the Interfax news agency reported.

July 6th, 2009 US and Russia set further talks on missile defenseMOSCOW — President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (dih-MEE'-tree med-VYEH'-dyev) are announcing a further review of possible ways to cooperate on missile defense. After talks in Moscow the two leaders issued a joint statement that indicated no breakthrough in one of the most divisive issues they face.

July 6th, 2009 MOSCOW - US President Barack Obama has said that the proposed deployment of a missile shield in Europe was intended to counter Iran and Russia should not worry about it. In an interview with Novaya Gazeta newspaper Monday, Obama said that Washington was seeking to create a missile shield in Europe to protect the US and Europe from Iranian ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads.

July 4th, 2009 MOSCOW - The speaker of Russian parliament's upper house has hoped that the US could give up its plans to deploy a missile shield in Poland and Czech Repubic as President Barack Obama has shown least interest in the controversial issue. Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov told Ekho Moskvy radio Saturday that he has reasons to believe that "ultimately, this thoughtless and very dangerous step will not be made - there will be neither radar nor missiles".

June 26th, 2009 MOSCOW - Russia and the US will sign a military cooperation deal during President Barack Obama's visit to Moscow in early July, Russia's top military general said Friday. "We discussed a number of very serious and important matters related both to international and regional security.

June 21st, 2009 AMSTERDAM - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has expressed hope that his meeting with US President Barack Obama in July would promote a new nuclear disarmament treaty. "We are ready to cut our strategic delivery vehicles by several times compared to the START-1 treaty.

June 18th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The United States is prepared to defend against a possible North Korean missile launch toward the US state of Hawaii, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday. "We're obviously watching the situation in the North with respect to missile launches very closely," Gates told reporters.

May 29th, 2009 SEOUL - North Korea warned the UN Security Council Friday that it would take "further self-defence measures" if the council imposed more sanctions on it for this week's nuclear test as media reports said it fired another short-range missile. North Korea denounced the Security Council, which includes Pyongyang's traditional allies China and Russia, for its unanimous condemnation of Monday's atomic test, North Korea's second after an initial test in 2006.

March 4th, 2009 WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama said Tuesday preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon would diminish the need for the US to base a missile-defence system in Eastern Europe. Obama commented on the planned deployment after The New York Times reported that he sent a secret letter to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev conveying his position.

February 9th, 2009 NEW DELHI - India's Left parties Tuesday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to cancel a Rs.100 billion contract for an Israeli air defence missile system and ensure that the indigenous development of a similar weapon 'is not subverted'. In a letter to Manmohan Singh, Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Prakash Karat and CPI general secretary A.B.