MOSCOW. April 29 (Interfax) - Russia and the United States will conduct consultations on missile defense issues in Brussels next week, Russian envoy to NATO Dmitry Rogozin has said.
He said that next week Brussels will also host a session of the Russia-NATO Council at the level of chiefs of General Staffs.
At the meeting Russia will be represented by Chief of the General Staff of Russian Armed Forces Gen. Nikolai Makarov, he said.
He said that Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov are expected to attend the consultations on missile defense in Brussels.
U.S. Undersecretary of State Ellen Tauscher, Undersecretary of Defense James Miller and Director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency Patrick O'Reilly will be on the U.S. delegation.
Russia, the United States and NATO are trying to find common ground for cooperation in establishing European missile defense. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at the latest Russia-NATO summit put forward the idea of a sectoral European missile defense system while NATO insists on the existence of two separate but interacting systems - Russian and NATO. Russia would also want to receive from the United States and NATO legally binding guarantees that the U.S. and NATO missile defense will not be aimed at Russia which does not find understanding in the West.
Earlier Rogozin said that the Russia-NATO Council is working to develop political cooperation principles in the sphere of missile defense.
"These political principles will be reflected in the document that is expected to be adopted at the June 9 meeting of defense ministers of the Russia-NATO Council," he believes.
"We expect that the June 9 ministerial meeting will give an opportunity to work out the architecture, the architectural plan of future missile defense," Rogozin said.