WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States said Wednesday that Russia has not responded to fresh US proposals to try to ease its concerns over US missile shield plans despite reports from Moscow suggesting it rejects them.
An unnamed Kremlin official quoted by Russian news agencies said Russia cannot accept the proposals as they contain nothing new and will take up negotiations with the next administration of Barack Obama.
However, US arms control negotiator John Rood told AFP that no formal response has been received.
"We have not had an official response to the paper we provided last week. We have seen various public statements," Rood said in an email in response to an AFP query.
Rood, the US under secretary for arms control and international security who led negotiations on missile defense, told journalists last Thursday that the United States had sent the proposals to Russia at the start of the week.
He said the offer was sent to Moscow before President Dmitry Medvedev announced plans to deploy missiles in response to the proposed US anti-missile system in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Rood said the proposals built on previous ones that would allow Russian authorities access to the missile shield sites in Poland and the Czech Republic.
He said he planned to meet with his Russian counterpart Sergei Ryabkov in the coming weeks, probably in Moscow, to discuss the proposals as well as other issues, including cooperation on avoiding nuclear terrorism.
Referring apparently to that meeting, Rood said on Wednesday, "we expect the paper will be addressed with Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov."
Rood said last week he was still optimistic about a solution despite Medvedev's threat to deploy missiles in a part of western Russia wedged between Lithuania and Poland -- which he called "disappointing" and "unwelcome."
The plans by the Bush administration envisage establishing rocket interceptors in Poland and a linked radar in the Czech Republic.
The United States insists the facilities are needed to protect against "rogue states" like Iran, but Moscow has portrayed them as a threat to its security.
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