There is no substantial proposal in U.S. written response to Russia on planned U.S. missile defense elements in Eastern Europe, Russian news agencies quoted a foreign ministry source as saying on Friday.
"Now there is no mention of a joint assessment of threats or of the presence of Russian specialists" at missile defense facilities in Poland and the Czech Republic, and "there is no readiness not to switch the system on if there is no real missile threat," the unidentified source said.
"Everything is so hazy that it is hard to find out from the text what the Americans proposed in Moscow," he said.
At an October talk in the "two-plus-two" format joined by defense and foreign ministers of the two countries in Moscow, Russia and the United States failed to reach any agreement on missile defense in Europe, but made a decision to continue discussions at an expert level.
Both sides agreed to draw up criteria to determine what should be classed as a missile threat.
"The document that was to confirm what the American ministers said in Moscow has taken more than a month to put together, and meanwhile the American plans (to deploy missile defense elements in Eastern Europe) have kept being put into practice," the source said.
"All that, of course, raises the question of how seriously the Americans take Russia's concerns and proposals," he said.
Moscow strongly opposes the U.S. missile defense plan in Eastern Europe, which consist of a radar station in Czech Republic and interceptor missiles in Poland, considering them a threat to its national security. Washington has insisted the missile shield is intended to stave off the threat of attacks from what it calls "rogue states."
Source:Xinhua
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