WASHINGTON (AFP) — Top US and Russian missile policy experts will meet for cooperation talks in Budapest on December 13, the US State Department said Saturday, amid tensions over Washington's plans for a defense shield in Europe.
US negotiators will discuss ideas "and proposals for US-Russia missile defense cooperation as well as radar cooperation to jointly monitor ballistic missile threats launched out of the Middle East," read a State Department statement.
"These proposals represent the most far-reaching strategic cooperation ever proposed between our two countries and offer a real strategic partnership on missile defense, including the opportunity to work together on a joint regional missile defense architecture," read the statement.
Washington is pushing ahead with planned missile defense sites in the Czech Republic and Poland even as a new US assessment downgraded the nuclear threat from Iran.
US officials say the plans are necessary to protect European allies from a potential missile strike from "rogue" states, especially Iran. The plans have angered Russia, which sees them as a threat to its security.
A new US intelligence community assessment released this week on Iran's nuclear ambitions found that the Islamic republic froze an atomic bomb program in 2003.
The US delegation to the Hungarian capital will be led by Acting Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, John Rood, and the Russian delegation by Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak, the State Department said.
It will be the fourth meeting of the senior-level policy experts group since US President George W. Bush met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in July, the department said.
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