Talks between NATO and Russia over U.S. plans for a projected missile defense system in Europe remain at loggerheads, Russia’s Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said on Thursday, May 3.

“So far we have not found a mutually acceptable solution to the missile defense issue and the situation is at a dead end,” Serdyukov said on the first day of a three-day conference on the issue in Moscow.

“NATO is to declare the first operational readiness of its Euro-missile defense system at a summit in Chicago on May 20, an indication that the alliance is willing to go ahead with the system without Russian accord,” he said, RIA Novosti reported.