NewsMax.com
Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2001

At the crux of negotiations beginning this week is whether the United States and Russia can reach some kind of working accommodation regarding their defenses against nuclear-missile attack, which each nation sees from an entirely different perspective.

The Bush-Cheney administration wants to create a national missile defense (NMD) system capable of shielding the United States against missile assaults from rogue nations, such as Iran, Iraq and North Korea.

Russia construes that as abrogation of the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty, which its predecessor nation, the Soviet Union, relied on throughout the half-century of Cold War to spare it from a first-strike attack, or even a counterattack, by the United States.

According to an analysis by Reuters news service:

In an opening bid to get around that impasse, Moscow is planning to present its own concept of "non-strategic" defense.

At the same time, President Bush is expected to offer a proposal for joint American-Russian development of a missile-defense system.

Into that mix comes Lord George Robertson of England, secretary general of NATO.

Arriving Monday in Moscow for talks with Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev, the NATO chief was exuding optimism. As was Leonid Ivashov, head of the ministry's foreign relations department.

Robertson said his objective was to build, and then build upon, an entirely fresh approach to relations between Russia and the Soviet Union's old nemesis, NATO, of which Moscow is still wary.

"NATO and Russia together are building a crisis-resistant relationship that will allow us to deal with the tricky issues as well as the common issues at stake in the world today,'' he said.

Robertson said he had brought "a package of confidence and security-building measures on nuclear issues, and I look forward to receiving the Russian proposals on missile defense."

Ivashov said, "I think we can do a lot together."

Robertson is also due to meet with President Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and leaders of the Duma, where anti-NATO sentiment is especially strong.

At the same time, a U.S. congressional delegation led by Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., was also in Moscow to discuss arms issues.

According to Itar-Tass news agency, Weldon announced he had brought a proposal from Bush for joint development of missile defense.

One of the issues vexing Moscow is the eastward expansion of NATO that began during the Clinton-Gore administration, converting the alliance from a purely defensive into a potentially aggressive instrument of Western policy.

Robertson said he intends to assure Russia it has nothing to fear if ex-Soviet republics, such as the Baltic states and Georgia, are invited to join NATO.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Bush Administration
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Missile Defense