U.S. fails to convince Russia

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW, MAY 11. A senior U.S. envoy has failed to convince Moscow of the need to scrap the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and build a missile shield. Russian-American consultations on the U.S. President, Mr. George W. Bush's plan to deploy a National Missile Defence left more questions than answers, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said. He was speaking after the 18- member U.S. delegation headed by the Deputy Secretary of Defence, Mr. Paul Wolfowitz, met an inter-agency group of Russian arms control experts led by Mr. Yuri Kapralov, director of the Foreign Ministry's department of security affairs and disarmament. During his one-day visit, Mr. Wolfowitz also met the First Deputy Foreign Minister, Mr. Vyacheslav Trubnikov, and the General Staff Chief, General Anatoly Kvashnin.

``The United States has been unable so far to give us arguments to convince us that Washington has a clear idea how to solve the problems of international security without relying on the ramified disarmament structure which has taken shape over the past 30 years,'' Mr. Alexander Yakovenko, chief Foreign Ministry spokesman said in televised remarks.

At the same time, he stressed that the talks had been substantive and would continue when the Russian Foreign Minister, Mr. Igor Ivanov, pays his first visit to Washington next week. Moscow reacted positively to Mr. Bush's offer of talks on the problems of strategic stability earlier this month, but made it clear it was still opposed to burying the ABM treaty. In a letter to Parliament a few days ago, Mr. Ivanov said Russia would stick to the position formulated by the President, Mr. Vladimir Putin. Mr. Putin had called for drastic cuts in nuclear arms while keeping the ABM treaty intact.

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Section  : International
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