Condi Rice Heads to Moscow For Talks on Kosovo, Missiles Disagreements

14 May 2007 -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected to arrive in Moscow Monday for two days of talks with Russian leaders on issues including Kosovo and U.S. plans for a missile defense system in Eastern Europe.

Moscow and Washington are behind two competing proposals before the United Nations Security Council for the future of Kosovo.

The United States backs plans for internationally supervised independence for the ethnic Albanian majority province of Serbia, while Moscow is calling for more talks.

The Kremlin has also reacted harshly to a U.S. proposal to build a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic. Despite U.S. assurances that the system is purely defensive, Moscow sees it as a threat and has said it could pull out of a major arms control treaty.

Rice told a U.S. Senate hearing last week that she is troubled by what she says is the Kremlin's concentration of power.

She called U.S.-Russian relations complicated, but said both countries are cooperating on such major issues as Iran and North Korea.

Source: VOA News

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