Throughout the next few months, there was little progress in the negotiations, with both sides wedded to positions on a number of critical issues. Meanwhile, the Obama administration indicated that it will continue the Bush administration’s European ballistic missile defense program, but modified it. Critics viewed this as a way of mollifying the Russians who are opposed to the deployment of the system believing it undercut its nuclear deterrent. Despite US assurances that the system was needed to protect NATO allies, the Russians are not convinced. Obama and Medvedev met at the UN General Assembly meeting in New York in September, claiming they were pleased with the negotiation’s progress, but the truth was that bureaucracies in both countries were not helping move the process along, and the governments remained far apart on a number of important issues. Senior officials on both sides intervened to prompt progress, but impediments remained. By November 2009, the probability of the sides signing a treaty before START expired was unlikely. Key US senators visited to Geneva to discuss the state of the negotiations.