DEAUVILLE, France — It is no simple thing to push the “reset” button on U.S.-Russian relations. Trying to move beyond years of inherited mistrust, President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev claimed progress Thursday but achieved no breakthrough on a U.S. missile defense plan that Moscow is concerned could threaten its security.
The two leaders went out of their way to stress — four times over — that their relationship was good. But Medvedev also acknowledged: “It does not mean that we’ll have common views and coinciding views on all the issues. It’s impossible.”
And a White House aide acknowledged that on the missile defense question, for years the single most confrontational issue in the U.S.-Russian relationship, both sides still were trying to overcome “old thinking.”
The two sides have long been in negotiations over U.S. intentions to station missile interceptors in Central and Eastern Europe. Russia believes the plan could threaten its own missile arsenal despite U.S. assurances to the contrary.
Medvedev expressed confidence the matter would be resolved, though not soon — perhaps in the year 2020, he suggested.
Obama and Medvedev met for 90 minutes on the sidelines of a two-day summit of the Group of Eight industrial nations.
