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WASHINGTON - The United States on Friday played down China and Russia's joint denunciation of its missile defence plans in Europe, saying it reflected longstanding worries that Washington is trying to overcome.
"I would not say we are 'troubled,' I would say that we are aware of their concerns and that we are working to address them," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said when asked about Beijing's complaints.
As for the Russians, now led by President Dmitry Medvedev, "We know that this is an important issue that they take very seriously," Perino told reporters.
"We do too, and we understand that they have concerns, and it's concerns that we want to address, and that's why we have an open conversation with them," the spokeswoman said.
The White House had said Thursday that Medvedev was open to talks on the issue -- one day before the new Russian leader joined China's President Hu Jintao on Friday in warning that the proposed missile shield "would not contribute to maintaining strategic balance and stability."
In a joint statement issued in Beijing during Medvedev's first foreign trip as president, they said it "hinders international arms control and non-proliferation efforts."
At the Pentagon, spokesman Bryan Whitman shrugged off the joint denunciation, saying the concerns behind it were neither new nor different.
"Those countries have been very consistent in their discomfort over a defence system that has interceptors and radars in Europe," he said.
"So I don't see it as ... their concerns being new or different in that regard," he told reporters, adding that the United States has tried to allay them with proposals to make missile defence operations more transparent.
The US plan calls for installing 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a targeting radar in the Czech Republic by 2012 to counter what Washington regards as an emerging missile threat from Iran.
The Czech government has approved the radar but the United States is still negotiating with Poland.
Perino dismissed Moscow's longstanding complaint that the system is aimed at Russia "because of the way that the Russians and their military could crush such a system."
- AFP /ls
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