The talks were held in the two-plus-two format with the participation of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and their Russian counterparts Sergei Lavrov and Anatoly Serdyukov.

Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov summed up the discussion, which lasted for many hours: "Russia and the United States have not yet come to terms on missile defense but are going to continue the dialog."

Russian Defense Minister Serdyukov added that "the sides have not changed their principled positions, although we heard once again what we have to work on."

Serdyukov used the word "heard" for a reason. At the fall meeting in the same format, the U.S. participants made a number of proposals to their Russian partners that could remove some of their concerns about the deployment of the ground-based mid-course interceptor missile shield against intercontinental ballistic missiles in Poland and the Czech Republic.

But these proposals were conspicuously absent from a subsequent official letter from the U.S. government that explained the U.S. position. When asked this time how this could have happened, Rice replied with a charming smile that some things always get lost in translation.

This regularly happens with the missile defense problem. At the last news conference in Moscow, the American partners promised to send their proposals in writing to the Russian side by the end of the day. But they appeared in the Russian Foreign Ministry only by the end of the following day.

The proposals will certainly be thoroughly analyzed. But on his way to Moscow, in the in-flight interview, Gates told journalists that no new proposals would be made to Russia. All proposals have already been made, and the ball was in Russia's court.

However, unofficial sources report that in order to alleviate Russia's misgivings, Washington has offered to position high-frequency radar in the Czech Republic in a way that would prevent it from watching Russian territory, and not to put interceptor missiles into silos in Poland until it becomes abundantly clear that Iran has ballistic missiles capable of destroying targets on the territory of U.S. European allies.

Moreover, the U.S. partners promised to allow Russian officers to visit their military bases if the governments of the host countries agree to this. Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek has already said that he will allow such visits on the basis of reciprocity, provided Russia gives Czech officers access to similar radars on its territory, but did not specify what he meant by "similar."

Next: Why Russia is skeptical about the new U.S. proposals

(Nikita Petrov is a military commentator for RIA Novosti. This article is reprinted by permission of RIA Novosti. The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.)

(United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In the interests of creating an open forum, original submissions are invited.)

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