Ivanov: Russia Agrees to Discuss Non-strategic ABM With U.S.

Russia has agreed to discuss the threat of non-strategic anti-ballistic-missiles(ABM) with the United States but continues to oppose any changes to the ABM Treaty signed by Moscow and Washington in 1972, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Wednesday.

Ivanov, speaking at the National Press Club, told reporters that Russia proposed "a constructive alternative for the ABM Treaty collapse."

The United States is seeking to adjust the treaty so as to deploy a national missile-defense (NMD) system. President Bill Clinton is supposed to make a decision in summer whether the system will be developed or not.

Senior U.S. officials reportedly said the U.S. may also postpone the decision on the deployment of such a system until November when the presidential election closes.

Ivanov, who arrived Wednesday after attending a review of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) at the United Nations in New York, reiterated Moscow's opposition to changing the ABM Treaty.

"We believe that this treaty, although it was concluded in 1972, still remains in force and still remains very topical, and wish it can be and should be preserved as the basis for our relations in the sphere of strategic stability," Ivanov said.

However, he noted that Russia would like to cooperate with the United States on reducing the threat of short-range missiles. The two countries set the demarcation of strategic and non-strategic missiles in New York in 1997.

"We also mean cooperation on non-strategic ABMs on the basis of the New York agreements of 1997, joint analysis of new missile threats, serious discussions of the global system of control over nonproliferation of missiles and missile technologies, political and diplomatic work with the threshold states," Ivanov said. Ivanov indicated that the subject will be a central issue during the forthcoming meeting between President Vladimir Putin and Clinton.

The Russian proposal did not address the concerns of the United States, which says that the goal of the NMD is to prevent missile attacks from "rogue" states. The U.S. NMD project, which was attacked worldwide even by its allies in Europe, was called a " fatal mistake" by Ivanov.

Responding to the Russia's approach, State Department spokesman James Rubin told a regular briefing that the proposal is "necessary but insufficient."

Jesse Helms, Chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told the Senate earlier on Wednesday that he will block the Clinton administration from making any deal with Russia on arms control.

"Mr. Clinton now wants to strike an ill-considered deal with Russia to purchase Russian consent to an inadequate U.S. missile defense," he told the floor. "This administration's time for grand treaties is clearly at an end."

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