Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Is The U.S. And Russia Finding Common Ground On Missile Defense?

Missile Shield Shift Opens Common Ground For Russia And US -- Christian Science Monitor

Strategists say that President Barack Obama's decision to scrap a controversial missile shield for Eastern Europe has mollified Russia, and could open the door for cooperation against common nuclear threats.

Moscow - After years squabbling over how the US could build an effective missile defense shield for Europe without scaring or offending Moscow, a growing number of experts suggest there may be an obvious way to square that circle: bring the Russians in and make them partners in a broad multi-national project.

Read more ....

My Comment: The key phrase from this CSM article is the following .... "The devil is in the details", and on what is arguably the most important of all secrets .... missile defense .... these details are not going to be offered freely.

I will be very surprised if some form of accommodation can be reached. Both the U.S. and Russia do not only have different strategic goals, but they also share a deep mutual distrust of each other. To overcome these obstacles .... it is going to take more than a few meetings, a few gestures of accommodation, and a few more shared interests and goals. But they are talking anyway, a condition that is probably vastly more preferable than having them not talking to each other.

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