November 27, 2007 (LPAC)--Following a meeting this morning with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov criticized the proposal on ballistic missile defense cooperation offered last week by the U.S. "The formal proposals we have received and are continuing to study," Lavrov said, "are a major setback from what we agreed [to] in Moscow in early October." According to Novosti, he said that the Administration did not appear to be seeking Russian cooperation in assessing possible threats, (which the U.S. had appeared to accept at the time), and that Washington just wanted Russia to help it implement its own plans.

"If by cooperation they mean pursuing their unilateral plans to build missile defense facilities in Eastern Europe and invite us to share our information, that is not what we have in mind, when we propose jointly analyzing threats and the subsequence measures to be taken." Lavrov said Russia still hoped a compromise could be reached at upcoming expert-level talks, the date for which has not yet been set.