Agence France-Presse,
WASHINGTON: Russia's armed forces chief met Tuesday at the Pentagon with his US counterpart for previously unannounced talks that come amid strains over US missile plans in eastern Europe.
General Yury Baluyevsky was received with full military honors by Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at the start of the talks.
Pentagon spokesmen said they had no information on the agenda for the sessions, but US plans to install a radar and interceptor missiles in eastern Europe have been a growing source of contention between the two countries.
“It was a very fruitful, productive discussion that both parties benefited from, and the chairman desires to keep the content of those discussions between him and his counterpart,” said Navy Captain John Kirby, a spokesman for Mullen.
Russia President Vladimir Putin last week signed a law suspending Russia's participation in the 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe treaty, which limits the deployment of tanks and other military hardware in eastern Europe.
The suspension enters into force on December 12 but Russian military officials have said they have no immediate plans to move forces into Eastern Europe.
Nevertheless, a Russian general said last month that Moscow could counter US missile defense deployments in eastern Europe by stationing missiles in Belarus.
Russian officials also have responded dismissively to US proposals to cooperate on missile defense and to hold off on the activation of a European site until Iran flight tests a missile capable of reaching Europe.
Baluyevsky's visit coincided with the release of a new US intelligence estimate that concludes that Iran halted a secret nuclear weapons program in 2003.
US intelligence officials say a uranium enrichment program that Iran says is for civilian purposes and its efforts to develop longer range missiles keeps Tehran's nuclear options open.
Washington insists its plans for missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic are aimed at countering a looming Iranian ballistic missile threat, not Russia's vast nuclear arsenal.
But the Russians have argued that the Iranian threat is not imminent, and that missile defense systems in eastern Europe could be turned against Russia's nuclear deterrent.
