October 21, 2007 (LPAC)-- Hints over the past few days that during the Rice-Gates talks in Moscow a week ago, a new U.S. offer for cooperation with the Russians was put on the table, seem to be confirmed by an Oct. 20 story in International Herald Tribune. The issue is also on the table of the ongoing NATO-Russia Council meeting in Brussels. It may be assumed that the non-governmental Kissinger-Primakov joint consultation group is involved in the discussions, as well.

Under the U.S. proposal, says the IHT, both sides would link up their radar networks and feed real-time information to their respective interceptor sites, although U.S. Missile Defense Agency chief Lt. Gen. Trey Obering stressed that each country would retain exclusive command and control over its missiles, and decide when they should be fired. To increase trust, the U.S. has suggested Russia could base liaison officers for monitoring at the American facilities if the Poles and Czech agree.

NATO officials said there was wide support among the 26 allied nations for the U.S. offer of increased cooperation, although the Russian representatives who joined the talks continued to voice objections to the deployment in Eastern Europe. In his annual webcast on Oct. 18, Putin also spoke of the U.S.-Russian cooperation, saying, "Our latest contacts with our American colleagues indicated that they really have done some thinking about our proposals and are seeking ways to solve the problems and to eliminate our concerns.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates will be in Europe for a NATO ministerial meeting, next week, and this undoubtedly be one of the topics of discussion.