Russia soothes NATO concerns over nuclear posture

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, October 11, 2003

Russia soothes NATO concerns over nuclear posture

Russia sought on Thursday to soothe concerns at NATO over its military posture, saying it did not reserve the right for itself to launch pre-emptive nuclear strikes.

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Russia sought on Thursday to soothe concerns at NATO over its military posture, saying it did not reserve the right for itself to launch pre-emptive nuclear strikes.

"You are right," Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said when asked if Moscow's doctrine differed from that of the United States, which reserves the right to use nuclear weapons pre-emptively.

"Russia still regards nuclear weapons as a means of political deterrent," he told a news conference after meeting counterparts from the 19-nation alliance in Colorado Springs.

Ivanov also said Moscow saw its former Cold War foe as a partner in efforts to fight new security threats such as terrorism and the spread of weapon of mass destruction, and in possible missile defense projects.

He denied media reports that a recent Russian defense document had suggested the need for an overhaul of Moscow's military posture and nuclear strategy because of an "offensive" NATO military doctrine.

However, he did say that Russia was increasing military deployments in former Soviet states and was concerned about NATO deployments near its borders, including one which put alliance warplanes within three minutes' flying time of St. Petersburg.

Both Ivanov and NATO officials said that more than three hours of discussions in Colorado Springs on Thursday included plans to continue improvement of military ties between Moscow and the West.

"All he said was he had seen some Russian press reports and European press reports last week about this Russian strategy document and he wanted to assure us that he felt they were erroneous -- that there were no negative Russian intentions toward NATO," U.S. envoy to NATO Nicholas Burns told reporters.

"In fact not only in the body language, but everything that he said was the opposite direction," he added.

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