Rice to visit Russia, hopes to calm many disputes
WASHINGTON, May 7 (Reuters) US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will visit Moscow on May 15 as the United States seeks to calm disputes with Russia on missile defense, Kosovo and other issues, the State Department said today.
Washington has angered Russia and unsettled some European allies with a plan to deploy 10 missile interceptors in Poland and radar in the Czech Republic from 2012 to help shield Europe from possible missile attack by nations such as Iran.
While European concerns about the missile shield appear to be easing, Russia has yet to be persuaded by US arguments that the system is no threat to its nuclear deterrent and has so far rebuffed US invitations to cooperate on the system.
Washington also is at loggerheads with Moscow because of a UN plan for supervised independence for Kosovo with a strong role for an international presence to protect minority rights.
Russia, which holds a veto on the UN Security Council, has repeatedly said it will not accept a solution that is not acceptable to Serbia, which adamantly opposes any form of independence for Kosovo.
''There are a lot of issues to talk about in the US-Russia strategic relationship, spanning from nuclear nonproliferation to missile defense to the development of democracy in Russia,'' State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.
The United States has for years voiced concerns about what it views as Russian backsliding on democracy and human rights.
McCormack said it was up to the Russians whether Rice would meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, although he said Putin has seen her on such visits in the past.
Putin caught the Bush administration off guard with a Feb 10 speech in Munich in which he accused the United States of seeking to impose its will on the world.
Asked
if
Rice
would
seek
clarification
of
the
speech,
McCormack
said
he
did
not
know
if
she
would
raise
it
but
added,
''I
am
sure
they
are
going
to
talk
about
the
tone
and
tenor
and
substance
of
the
US-Russia
relationship.''
REUTERS
RS
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