RICE, GATES TO DISCUSS MISSILE DEFENSES IN MOSCOW
PanARMENIAN.Net
17.03.2008 16:00 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Russia’s outgoing president and his elected successor
will meet with top U.S. officials arriving in Moscow Monday for talks
on missile defenses in Europe, a Kremlin official said.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary
Robert Gates are to meet with their Russian counterparts to discuss
Washington’s plans to install a radar in the Czech Republic and
a missile base in Poland, which Moscow is opposed to calling the
proposal a national security threat.
"A meeting between Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Medvedev, Condoleezza
Rice and Robert Gates will take place in the Kremlin today," the
official said.
Gates was quoted by foreign agencies as saying en route to Moscow
that the United States will offer no new proposals in Moscow and
wants the Kremlin to make the next move.
"We’ve put a lot on the table and now it’s time for them to
reciprocate," Gates said.
The U.S. argues the bases are designed to counter missile attacks from
‘rogue’ states like Iran.
Washington offered late last year to allow Russian officials access to
the proposed sites to ensure the radar is not targeted at Russia and
interceptor missiles are kept non-operational until Iran’s long-range
missiles have been proved as a threat.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said earlier the measures could "not resolve
the issue of creating a system to monitor missile threats throughout
the world," but gave Russia "the opportunity to see that the U.S.’
unilateral actions… do not pose a direct threat to the country at
the given moment."
The ministry said the U.S. and Russian officials would also focus on
Russia’s unilateral moratorium on the Conventional Forces in Europe
(CFE) treaty and on a new strategic arms reduction treaty to replace
START-I, which expires in December 2009, RIA Novosti reports.