September 11, 2007 (LPAC)--During negotiations in Paris on Sept. 10, the U.S. put forward a new proposal to the Russians for cooperation on ballistic missile defense, Assistant Secretary of State John Rood told the press following the meeting. On the one hand, he said the U.S. has not changed its plans: "We are going forward with the discussions with the Poles and the Czechs," Rood told reporters. But, "There could be some new things that we could do between our countries, and we've put forward proposals to that end to the Russians." Rood would not elaborate on what these ideas might be. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak said that "serious work is being conducted. It will be continued," after Monday's session.

In a discussion with EIR at a reception last night, Russian space scientist, Roald Sagdaev, the science adviser to former Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev, and long-time opponent of President Reagan's SDI, indicated that there might be a way of establishing cooperation, even if the U.S. does not back down from its original proposal, which he didn't think they would do, provided that any control mechanism also involved Russian participation. He said the initial Russian reaction to the announcement of the U.S. Poland/Czech deployment was very negative, but that President Putin's counter-proposal was very smart.

This Saturday, Sept. 15th, Russian, American, and Azeri representatives are to meet in Baku to discuss the use of the Russian radar in Azerbaijan in a joint missile defense architecture. Rood and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak will continue the talks in Moscow on Oct. 3 on missile defense, AFP cited Rood as saying.