Russia receives US missile defense proposals

The US has handed Russia new proposals on the planned deployment of a missile defence shield in Central Europe, Russian foreign office said Wednesday. "The proposals have been received and are being studied," Sergei Kislyak, deputy foreign minister, said.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice put forward the deployment proposals at a meeting here Tuesday to allay Moscow s concerns, and said the plan would be finalized in writing by the end of the day. The papers were handed to Russia Wednesday.

Russian Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said Tuesday the talks had shown the sides positions remained unchanged, but Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called the new proposals put forward by Rice and Gates "useful and important." After the last round of talks between the four ministers in October 2007,the US sent written proposals that Russia said contradicted the agreements reached at the discussions.

Tuesday, Rice admitted that there had been some discrepancies between the conceptual ideas put forward at the October meeting and the subsequent written proposals.

Source : IANS