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Bush to Discuss Missile Defense With Russia NewsMax.com Wires WASHINGTON -- President Bush said Monday he is stepping up a dialogue with Russia over a planned U.S. missile defense system in Europe in hopes of convincing Moscow it's only "a friendly force." The issue came up on the first day of a U.S.-European Union summit at the White House. Bush said German Chancellor Angela Merkel's urging, he has begun trying to better explain his plans to President Vladimir Putin. The Bush administration is planning to install a radar system and interceptors in Eastern Europe as part of its broader missile defense system. Last week, Putin repeated opposition to the U.S. plan and threatened to pull out of a key post-Cold War treaty that set limits on the deployment of military forces in Europe as a result. "Our intention of course is to have a defense system that prevents rogue regimes from holding western Europe and/or America hostage," Bush said. "Evidently, the Russians see it differently." Bush said he personally requested of Putin that he give Defense Secretary Robert Gates an audience on a recent trip to Moscow so that Gates could discuss the plan more fully. "We have started a dialogue, as a result of Secretary Gates' visit, that hopefully will make explicit our intentions, and hopefully will present an opportunity to share with the Russians so that they don't see us as an antagonist force, but see us as a friendly force," Bush said. Ahead of the talks with Bush, Merkel, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, proposed that Russia be invited to participate in a common threat analysis to clarify the need for the defense system. She said that talks should take place in the NATO-Russia council. Story Continues Below
Though she said she did not expect great progress on the impasse with Russia at the summit, she said she would press her concerns. "I want to make clear again that things need to be discussed jointly with Russia," she said. Merkel did not comment on the topic in her joint appearance with Bush after the summit meetings. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, who led the summit's European delegation with Merkel, said over the weekend that Russia should not have a veto over the proposed missile defense system and criticized Putin's threat. The missile defense issue overshadowed the meetings, the primary goal of which was U.S.-European unity at a time when the two sides have made clear they will sidestep disagreements over global trade and climate change. Diplomatic efforts to achieve Middle East peace and to get Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment program were also on tap at the summit, as were a U.S. visa waiver program that excludes some European nations, the violence in Sudan's Darfur region, and global trade talks. European leaders and the U.S. have helped push through two sets of United Nations sanctions as part of international efforts to pressure Iran to make nuclear concessions. Bush called Iran "a significant threat to world peace today and in the future" because of its nuclear program and said the United States and the European Union are "united in sending this very clear message" to back enforcement of U.N. resolutions on Iran to allow inspections of nuclear facilities. Merkel has sought to foster closer ties between Europe and Washington, after years of disputes over the Iraq war and the U.S. treatment of terror suspects. The three leaders praised a new agreement they reached to integrate their economies in such areas as trade, investment and innovation. "It is a recognition that the closer the United States and E.U. become, the better off our people become," Bush said. "And so this is a substantial agreement and I appreciate it." Bush and his European colleagues also pushed for the completion of stalled international trade talks, known as the Doha Round.
© 2007 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Editor's note: Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
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