Agence France-Presse,
SHANNON, Ireland: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice flew to Moscow on Thursday determined to defend US plans to extend an anti-missile rocket system into Poland and the Czech Republic against stiff Russian opposition.
“We have been very clear that we need the Czech and Polish sites,” Rice told reporters on her plane prior to a stopover in Shannon, Ireland, en route to Moscow.
Once in the Russian capital, she and US Defence Secretary Robert Gates will discuss the thorny issue in a combined meeting with their respective Russian counterparts, Sergei Lavrov and Anatoly Serdyukov.
Washington says the system would protect against “rogue states” such as Iran and wants to build a radar tracking base in the Czech Republic and house interceptor missiles in Poland.
Moscow sees the system as a threat to its own security and has warned it would create a “new Berlin wall,” with President Vladimir Putin suggesting siting it in Azerbaijan instead.
The Kremlin has also threatened to re-deploy nuclear missiles if the US forges ahead with the project.
Rice made it clear that she was willing to discuss various options.
“There is considerable interest in both Azerbaijan and some of the possibilities in Russia itself,” she said.
“We really do have to pursue missile defence and we have to pursue it in a way that our technical experts say it is going to work,” she said.
“And for the threats that we see coming, that means the kind of sites that we have been talking about with Poland and the Czech Republic.
“But we are interested in other potential sites as well. And you know, we may be able to find ways to put that together,” she added.
Rice sought to play down bilateral differences on other subjects, such as democratic reforms in Russia, which Washington believes are moving to slowly, and how best to deal with the Iranian nuclear issue.
“We don't see eye to eye on everything but in juxtaposition to the way the relationship was with the Soviet Union … this is a very different relationship,” she said.
The most important sea change, she insisted, was that the two former Cold War rivals were no longer a threat to one another.
“There are disagreements and differences, sometimes quite wide, sometimes pretty narrow. But this is a relationship that has a lot of benefits as well,” she said.
During her two days in Moscow, Rice will hold separate talks with Foreign Minister Lavrov, with whom she is known to have a somewhat frosty relationship.
As well as Iran, she is likely to raise the issue of the Middle East peace summit the United States is hoping to host, possibly next month.
One subject she looks set to steer clear of is Putin's political future, following his recent shock announcement that he might seek to run for prime minister.
“I am not going to get into speculations with Putin about what he will or will not do,” she said.
