The Hindu : Arms reduction: new ideas `discussed'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 30, 2002

International

International

Arms reduction: new ideas `discussed'

MOSCOW April 29. Russia's Defence Minister said on Monday that his Government had set out new ideas that could advance talks toward a nuclear arms reduction agreement by the May summit between the U.S. President, George Bush and the Russian President, Vladimir Putin.

Sergei Ivanov and the U.S. Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, refused to provide details of the ideas or the two hours of talks they held at Moscow's Sheremetyevo-1 airport. However, Mr. Ivanov said the U.S. side had already responded to the proposals, which were sent to Washington last week, and that his talks with Mr. Rumsfeld had helped ease some differences over the agreement.

"My personal belief is that today we have reached some progress," Mr. Ivanov said. "We're making progress, and the meetings will continue later this week in Washington," Mr. Rumsfeld said, referring to meetings scheduled between the Secretary of State, Colin Powell and his Russian counterpart.

Mr. Bush has said he is prepared to reduce the U.S. nuclear arsenal to 1,700 to 2,200 warheads from the current 6,000 each country is allowed under the START-1 treaty. Mr. Putin has said Moscow would be willing to go down to 1,500 warheads. But the talks have snagged on Moscow's objection to the Pentagon's decision to store nuclear warheads it takes out of active service rather than destroy them.

A senior U.S. defence official travelling with Mr. Rumsfeld said en route to Moscow that Washington would not give up its plan to store some warheads, which it has portrayed as a hedge against unexpected shifts in the international security environment. "It's a fact of life" that the Russians must accept, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Mr. Ivanov has previously indicated some flexibility on the issue, and he hinted on Monday that the Russian side accepted the U.S. argument that the security picture could change radically in the future. "We're not just thinking mechanically about the number of warheads, or delivery systems, but we are also trying to forecast the situation in the world and our own relationship in five, seven, nine years," Mr. Ivanov said. "For this, of course, it is vitally important for both the United States and our side to know the geopolitical atmosphere that might emerge in five, seven or 10 years."

In their talks on Monday, the two defence chiefs also reviewed progress in the war on terrorism and efforts to stem the spread of weapons of mass destruction. Mr. Ivanov said the U.S. and Russian views on the situation in Afghanistan were quite similar, and that both governments were interested above all in seeing the Central Asian nation "slowly but surely heading on the road to stabilization."

Mr. Rumsfeld stopped in Moscow en route from Kazakhstan, the last stop on a tour that took him to three other Central Asian nations: Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan.

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