Russia to Remain Calm Over US Pullout of ABM Treaty

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, December 14, 2001

Russia to Remain Calm Over US Pullout of ABM Treaty

Russia's reaction to the United States withdrawal from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty will be calm, Russian President Vladimir Putin's aide, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, said Thursdy.

Russia's reaction to the United States withdrawal from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty will be calm, Russian President Vladimir Putin's aide, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, said Thursdy.

"We are convinced that Russia's nuclear missile potential is sufficient for defending our national interests," Yastrzhembsky told Ekho Moskvy radio. He said he was answering questions on the subject as a security expert rather than an official spokesman.

He described the U.S. arguments for withdrawing from the ABM treaty as "not convincing."

U.S. President George W. Bush on Wednesday informed Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and other congressional leaders that he had made the decision to unilaterally pull out of the ABM treaty.

Talking of a possible cold spell in Russia-U.S. relations after Washington's withdrawal from the treaty, Yastrzhembsky said the level of cooperation between the two countries was high at the moment and the potential of this cooperation should demonstrate whether it was sufficient for overcoming "minutes of weakness" in bilateral ties.

At a meeting on Thursday with the governor of China's Heilongjiang Province, Song Fatang, Gennady Seleznev, speaker of the Russia State Duma, said Russia had something it could respond with if the United States withdrew from the 1972 ABM treaty.

Commenting on U.S. President George Bush's address to the American Congress on its withdrawal from the treaty, Seleznev, who heads an official Duma delegation on a visit to China, said: "The sky will not fall on to the earth as a result of this move."

Such a decision by the American authorities was foreseeable.

"They were bracing for this long ago and had already made an official statement," he said.

Seleznev also called for stepping up Russian-Chinese dialogue on security affairs, and expressed hope that Russian-Chinese cooperation could develop more vigorously in this sphere of mutual interest.

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