Bush Hopeful that Russia Finds Missile Talks Beneficial

In a speech delivered in Bulgaria, his final stop on an eight day tour of Europe in which he visited six different countries, President Bush said that he hopes that the Russian leadership found his missile defense system analysis proposal "beneficial", report Bloomberg and other news services.

"I simply do not view Russia as an enemy. I view Russia as a country with whom we should have and can have good relations to solve common problems. One such problem is Iran. Another problem is proliferation," Bush said. Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov was also present as the two national leaders gave a join press conference from the city of Sofia.

On Sunday, White House press secretary Tony Snow said that the U.S. is very encouraged by the Russians' willingness to talk about the proposed jointly-controlled missile defense system, which would be deployed in eastern Europe with the purpose of shooting down nuclear missile launches from "rogue" nation-states such as Iran or North Korea.

"Frankly, we are encouraged by the fact that the Russians now are talking about figuring out a way to provide a missile shield that will discourage rogue regimes from loading nukes onto missiles and aiming them," Snow told the Associated Press.

While in Germany at the G8 Summit, Bush suggested to Russian President Vladimir Putin having U.S. experts analyze Russia's proposal for the missile defense system, which would have as one component a Russian-controlled radar station in Azerbaijan, while the Russians assigned their experts to analyze the U.S. proposal.

"And that's where we left it in Germany. So we're going to have a group of people come together ... to discuss how to deal with the true threats of the 21st century," Bush was quoted as saying by Reuters.

"There's a process where we can collaborate and share information in a very transparent way, which I think will be beneficial. I would hope that the Russians would see the meetings as beneficial, realize our true intent. Hopefully we'll design systems that protect us all," Bloomberg quoted the President as saying.