Russia, NATO at loggerheads over missile defense

Moscow, May 3 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Talks between NATO and Russia over US plans for a projected missile defense system in Europe remain at loggerheads, Russia's Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said Thursday.

"So far we have not found a mutually acceptable solution to the missile defense question" and the situation is at a dead end, Serdyukov said on the first day of a three-day conference on the issue in Moscow.

NATO is to declare the first operational readiness of its Euro-missile defense system at a NATO summit in Chicago May 20, an indication that the alliance is willing to go ahead with the system without Russian accord, he said.

--IANS/RIA Novosti

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