US Assistant Secretary of State for arms control Frank Rose said on Tuesday that the system of antimissile defense created by the U.S. and NATO does not threaten Russia’s strategic potential at all, RIA Novosti reported.

Rose also mentioned that Russia continues to express concern about the fact that the missile defense system threatens Russia's strategic potential, although NATO and the US have repeatedly said that it is not so,

He described as "regrettable" the fact that Russia had refused to cooperate with NATO on creation of missile defense system.

He noted that it is important to emphasize that Russia had unilaterally rejected constructive dialogue with NATO concerning antimissile defense.

In turn, senior civilian representative of the Secretary of Defense in Europe Robert Bell mentioned that if the European missile defense system was aimed against the strategic potential of Russia, "it would have been a completely different system."