TYUMEN, Russia, March 7 (UPI) -- The U.S. ambassador to Russia has offered Moscow a new dialogue to boost cooperation on ballistic missile defense.
U.S. Ambassador to Moscow William Burns said during a visit to Siberia that the U.S. and Russian governments should hold ongoing bilateral talks to explain their conflicting stands on BMD issues and to try and deal with their differences on them, the RIA Novosti news agency reported Tuesday.
Burns repeated the Bush administration's position that building a new radar installation in the Czech Republic and a new anti-ballistic missile interceptor base in Poland to protect European nations from the threat of nuclear missiles launched by so-called "rogue" states would not endanger Russia's national security. He even offered the possibility that Washington and Moscow could start a new cycle of cooperation on BMD, the report said.
However, Burns also made other comments certain to anger the Kremlin. He said that the desire of two former Soviet republics, Georgia and Ukraine, to join the U.S.-led NATO alliance was an expression of the desire of the governments and populations of both nations.
Burns referred to the NATO-Russia Council as a relevant mechanism to try and defuse conflicts between the two powers over such issues, the report said.
Burns' comments came after senior U.S. officials had said they wanted to prioritize improving relations with Russia. But as the ambassador's comments indicated no softening of the U.S. position on BMD bases and Ukraine and Georgia that have so angered the Kremlin, they look unlikely to have any appreciable impact.
