Asked whether Canada could mediate in Russian-U.S. talks on the NMD plan, Manley said the recent Russian-U.S. summit in Ljubljana, Slovenia, shows that no mediators are needed. Ivanov said Russia "would like Canada to be a partner and not a mediator." Manley said the United States has still not given Canada a clear idea of what NMD would be like. Nor did Canada know who would control it, he said.

Therefore, Manley said, it is still unclear how Canada should react. But Canada would closely follow the U.S. project, he said. Ivanov, when asked what Russia and Canada thought of the space weapons problem, said the two countries "consider this to be one of the most burning problems and stand for joint efforts by the international community to prevent the penetration of any kind of weapons into space."

Manley said Canada supported all measures to prevent weapons from being stationed in space. He said Canada and Russia were closely cooperating in civilian space exploration, including via the International Space Station. Manley said a Canadian representative would soon come to Russia to coordinate actions with NASA and the Russian Aviation and Space Agency.