Russia and the United States have failed to make any progress on missile defence talks, according to Chief of the Russian General Staff, Yury Baluevsky. He came to this conclusion at the end of a working visit to the U.S.
The two countries signed a memorandum on bilateral military co-operation in 2008, but, with regard to the area of missile defence, Baluevsky says he had the impression that Washington “simply didn't hear” his arguments. “Our standpoint is very clear, and it has been spelled out by the President. Let's determine how real the potential threats are, and jointly assess these threats before making a decision on the necessity and expediency of deploying technical means to avert them. So we said this, but they did not hear us, nor did they want to listen to what we had to say,” he said.