On December 7, 2007, at the NATO-Russian Council meeting held at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov (right) spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Rice (left). Lavrov said on the same day that the U.S. deployment of missile defense systems in Central Europe would affect cooperation between Russia and NATO in missile defense. In late January, the U.S. demanded the resumption of negotiations with Lombok and the Czech Republic on the establishment of missile defense bases. Russia believed that the establishment of a counter-base in Eastern Europe threatened Russia¡¯s security interests. The Russian-US contradiction was sharpened by this. In February, Russian President Vladimir Putin, at the Munich Security Policy Conference, criticized U.S. foreign policy, saying