Medvedev to discuss missile defense with Washington
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Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will discuss missile defense with U.S. leaders during his upcoming visit to the United States, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday.
Medvedev plans to visit Washington in June to boost bilateral cooperation in various spheres including trade and high-tech industry.
"We have high expectations for this summit," Lavrov said in an interview with Russia's Kommersant newspaper.
"We have not yet agreed on this (missile defense) issue and we are trying to clarify how the agreements reached by the two presidents...correlate with the actions taken unilaterally by Washington," he said.
The Obama administration has not coordinated its plans of missile defense with Russia, he added.
Russia-U.S. relations have improved after President Barack Obama stepped in, but the two countries remain at odds over the issue of missile defense.
Although Obama scrapped the Bush administration's plans to deploy missile defense elements in the Czech Republic and Poland, he did not give up the missile defense plans in eastern Europe.
Washington deployed in May six training-mode Patriot missiles in Poland's northern town of Morag, close to the Russian border. After 2012, the deployed missile defense systems will be supplemented with standard SM-3 combat missiles.
Moscow had demanded articulate explanations on the deployment, a move it considered a threat to its national security.
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