U.S. deletes five compromise proposals on missile defense

By Xinhua

Moscow : The United States has deleted five compromise proposals in a document received by Russia in November on the U.S. missile defense plans in East Europe, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday.


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The United States offered to make a number of concessions at an October talk in Moscow in the “two-plus-two” format joined by defense and foreign ministers of the two countries, who were seeking a solution to an American-Russian dispute over the U.S. plans to deploy missile defense elements in Poland and the Czech Republic, the Interfax news agency quoted the ministry as saying.

One of the concessions the United States showed willingness to make at October’s talks but did not mention in the Nov. 21 document, was that it not activate interceptor missiles before there was authentic evidence of existence of ballistic missiles threatening Europe, the Russian ministry said.

Others were that American interceptors would not be placed in silos; that they would be dismantled if a missile threat were eliminated; that the United States would join forces with Russia in checking whether any missiles had been launched in the Middle East or western Asia for missile launches; and that Washington and Moscow would make joint decisions on how to react to missile threats, one of them being that U.S. officers be stationed at Russian missile defense facilities, the ministry said.

Moscow strongly opposes the U.S. ABM system plans, which consist of a radar station in the Czech Republic and interceptor missiles in Poland, considering them a threat to its national security. Washington has insisted the missile shield is intended to stave off the threat of attacks from what it calls “rogue states.”

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