Russian, US Defense Chiefs Report Progress on Arms ReductionTalks

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, April 30, 2002

Russian, US Defense Chiefs Report Progress on Arms ReductionTalks

The Russian and American Defense Ministers on Monday declared mild progress toward a nuclear arms agreement after a two-hour talk in Moscow.

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The Russian and American Defense Ministers on Monday declared mild progress toward a nuclear arms agreement after a two-hour talk in Moscow.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov told reporters that Moscow submitted to the Americans a "set of new ideas" to push the talks several days ago.

"Today we attentively listened to the opinion and related proposal from the American side. I think we have achieved certain progress today," he said.

Ivanov said it was up to the two presidents to decide whether to sign the agreement, but he and his U.S counterpart Donald Rumsfeld were poised to offer "the most efficient texts" of the future accords.

Rumsfeld, who arrived here for a brief stopover, confirmed the progress and said the meeting would continue later this week in Washington, referring to meetings between Secretary of State Colin Powell and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov.

The two also discussed progress in the war on terrorism and preparations for a Russian-U.S. summit in May.

After the Moscow meeting, Rumsfeld headed to Washington, ending a five-nation tour to boost support for the war on terrorism from leaders in Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan.

Russian and U.S. negotiators have been working on a nuclear arms reduction deal they hoped would be clinched before the May summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President W. George Bush.

Bush has promised to cut the U.S. arsenal to 1,700 to 2,200 strategic nuclear warheads, while Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Russia could go even lower, to 1,500 warheads from the current 6,000 that each country is currently allowed under the 1991 START I treaty.

Bush initially favored an informal deal, but later acceded to Putin's push to formalize the cuts in a legally binding agreement. But talks on the agreement have been thorny because of Moscow's objection to the Pentagon's decision to stockpile decommissioned nuclear weapons rather than destroy them.

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