BRUSSELS — Russia should help NATO create a "security roof" that would jointly defend both of them from missiles fired by rogue nations, NATO's chief said Saturday.
Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Russia's participation in the U.S.-led anti-missile defense would help revitalize Moscow's relations with the 27-member Western security alliance.
Fogh Rasmussen cited the growing threat of Iranian medium-range missiles, which he said could already reach Europe and parts of Russia.
The United States has a missile defense system based mainly in North America, and it is planning one for its European allies.
"One security roof would be a very strong political symbol that Russia is fully part of the Euro-Atlantic family, sharing the benefits and the costs not outside, but very much inside," Fogh Rasmussen said at a security conference.
Fogh Rasmussen said NATO needed to reach a binding decision on missile defense by the alliance's next summit in November, and he noted that Iran was moving ahead on developing new missiles of intermediate and intercontinental range.
"If Iran were to complete this development, then the whole of the European continent, as well as all of Russia, would be in range," he said.
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