DHAKA: The US is to activate a land-based missile defense station in Romania, which will form part of a larger and controversial European shield.

Senior US and Nato officials are expected at the ceremony in Deveselu, southern Romania, reports the BBC.

The US says the Aegis system is a shield to protect Nato from short and medium-range missiles, particularly from the Middle East.

But Russia sees it as a security threat - a claim denied by Nato.

Relations between the West and Russia have deteriorated since Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s southern Crimea peninsula in 2014.

Russia is also accused of arming separatists in eastern Ukraine and sending its troops there - a claim denied by the Kremlin.

Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and other senior officials from the military alliance are expected to be at the opening ceremony at an old Romanian air base in Deveselu.

The US is believed to have spent $800m on radar and SM-2 missile interceptors since 2013.

The station will have a battery of SM-2 missile interceptors.

BDST: 1154 HRS, MAY 12, 2016
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