Interfax's Interview

 Russia and the United States will begin consultations on missile defense issues at the expert level in July, U.S. ambassador to Russia William Burns told Interfax in an interview on Wednesday.

 “President Bush and President Putin had a very constructive discussion of the issue of missile defense in Maine. President Putin brought very interesting ideas with him.

President Bush made clear our commitment to trying to do everything possible to develop a common approach, a cooperative approach to the issue of missile defense, and that includes working together bilaterally, first with experts’ meeting beginning this month to look at the threat, as well as the various capabilities for dealing with that threat and help us to organize those capabilities,” he said

 Burns said that at the summit in Kennebunkport the two presidents “also made clear our interest in working through the NATO-Russia Council to develop an effective regional approach.”

 “I don’t have any illusions - this is a complicated issue, but I think there’s a commitment on both sides to begin a serious process to try and explore cooperation,” he said.

 “Our foreign and defense ministers will meet in the autumn in the so-called 2+2 meeting. There’s obviously a lot of work to be done between now and then on missile defense and on other security issues. But I think there is a real opportunity to find a basis for cooperation,” the ambassador said.

 Asked whether Russian proposals on missile defense could encourage the U.S. side to review its attitude to the deployment of missile defense elements in Poland and the Czech Republic Burns said: “President Bush publicly made clear that we think it’s important to pursue the discussions that we’ve begun with Poland and the Czech Republic. But at the same time, he made very clear our interest in trying to develop an approach to regional cooperation on this issue and to working with Russia.”

 Commenting on the Russian statement on retargeting Russian missile to U.S. missile defense elements in Europe Burns said: “I would prefer to concentrate on the possibilities for cooperation rather than on more negative kinds of scenarios.”

 “I think Russia and America have had enough of arms races and enough of Cold Wars,” he said.

 The United States and Russia that are marking the bicentennial of the establishment of their diplomatic relations this year have “had moments of competition and partnership, moments of conflict and of common purpose,” he said.

 “The one thing we’ve never had over the last 200 years is the luxury of ignoring one another. And I think that’s especially true today,” Burns said. 

 He said that the United States regards as a priority task assistance to tracing and catching persons involved in the abduction and murder of workers of the Russian embassy in Baghdad.

 “It has been a very high priority of the United States ever since that tragedy occurred – the kidnapping and the murder,” he said.

 “There is a terrorist who is in custody by coalition forces, who is implicated in that murder, and we are working very closely with our Russian colleagues on this issue,” the ambassador said.

 “And I would just add one personal note: I’ve spent a good deal of my diplomatic career in the Middle East. I’ve served in posts where my diplomatic colleagues have been murdered by terrorists. And I take this issue very seriously, as do all of my colleagues. I have great respect for my Russian diplomatic colleagues, and I know they would take the issue just as seriously if the roles were reversed. We both face threats from terrorists,” Burns said.

 A group of unidentified gunmen attacked a car of the Russian embassy when it was approaching the diplomatic compound in Baghdad on June 3, 2006. There were five embassy staff members in the car. The abductors killed embassy worker Vitaly Titov, and abducted third secretary Fyodor Zaitsev and embassy workers Rinat Agliulin, Anatoly Smirnov and Oleg Fedoseyev.

 Later the Russian Foreign Ministry officially announced the death of the Russian diplomats abducted in Iraq.

 Speaking at the Federation Council at the end of June 2007 Director of the Federal Security Service Nikolai Patrushev said Russian special services had obtained preliminary information on the people who were directly involved in the murder of Russian diplomats as well as on the possible location of their remains.

 Western media reports said that a terrorist who had confessed to abducting and killing the Russian diplomats went on trial in Iraq in May 2007. They said he was Omar Abdullah Dahd also known as Abu Nur or Spider. Coalition forces in Iraq captured him in December 2006.

 Asked whether the U.S. side believes that the possible new sanctions against Iran should apply to the nuclear power station in Bushehr built with Russian assistance Burns said: “Bushehr does not fall under the existing Security Council resolutions. And the only thing I would add on Bushehr is, I think, that Russia’s handling of that issue has been quite responsible.”

 “The diplomatic cooperation between the United States and Russia on the Iranian nuclear problem, I think, has been very good and increasingly close,” the ambassador said.

 “We are pursuing a diplomatic strategy that has two tracks. One track is: we and our partners have made a generous offer to Iran with incentives, if it complies with its obligations to the International Atomic Energy Agency and to the UN Security Council and if it suspends the enrichment of uranium. That offer is still on the table,” he said.

 The second track is that “we’ve tried to make clear the consequences of not complying with the IAEA and the UN Security Council,” he said.

 “Along that track, the United States and Russia have both voted for two Security Council resolutions so far. And we’re beginning to consider now a new resolution, which would look at ways of making even clearer the importance of Iran living up to its obligations,” Burns said.

 Speaking of current energy problems he did not rule out competition with Russia in the Caspian and Black Sea regions but felt that there is no fundamental conflict of interests between the two countries.

 “We favor multiple pipelines coming out of the Caspian and Black Sea regions. Russia has a big role to play in that,” he said.

 “Of course, there is going to be competition between us in energy sometimes. That’s, after all, what energy markets are all about. But I don’t think there’s any fundamental conflict of interest between us. We both have an interest in bringing energy to world markets in reliable and transparent ways,” he said.

  “I think when we look at the Caspian and Black Sea regions, we see a common interest in multiple routes, in multiple pipelines coming out of those regions. So, that’s why, for example, when the Burgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline was announced, we welcomed it,” the diplomat said.

 “And that’s why we also support the understanding that Russia and Kazakhstan have reached to expand the Caspian Pipeline Consortium,” Burns concluded.

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