MOSCOW, August 21 (RIA Novosti) – Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and US Acting Undersecretary of State Rose Gottemoeller have discussed missile defense and disarmament issues in London, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.
Missile defense issues “were considered thoroughly,” the ministry said in a statement. “Special attention was given to the outlook for the continuation of bilateral dialogue on a range of issues related to strategic stability.”
Other issues included US-Russian collaboration on arms control and nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the ministry said.
Ryabkov and Gottemoeller met Tuesday as co-chairs of a working group on arms control and international security at the US-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission.
Last Wednesday, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said that recent missile defense talks between Russian and NATO military officials had reached an impasse.
Russia and NATO had initially agreed at a Lisbon summit in November 2010 to cooperate over a US-proposed missile defense system in Eastern Europe. But subsequent talks between Russia and the alliance have floundered over NATO’s refusal to grant Russia legal guarantees that the system would not be deployed against Russia’s nuclear deterrent.
