U.S. Says Russia's Objection Weighs in NMD Decision

A senior U.S. official said on Thursday that Russia will be "the proper and well-considered amount of weight" when U.S. President Bill Clinton decided later this year whether the United States should deploy a national missile defense (NMD) system.

The senior State Department official, who refused to be identified, told reporters that Clinton will make his decision on NMD issue based on a lot of factors.

"The criteria...are cost, threat, technology, and then the fourth criterion...which is overall impact on our national security interests, on arms control, on U.S.-Russian relations, on Russia itself, on alliances--plural--China, and so forth, and so on," the official said.

"He (U.S. president) will make it on the basis of lots of factors and lots of advice and lots of views of other people, including the President of Russia," the official added.

The official, who briefed reporters on the upcoming summit between Clinton and Russian President Vladimir Putin, said the summit is going to have a very broad agenda including economic issues, regional security, nonproliferation and arms control.

Top on the agenda will be the dispute on possible changes which Washington seeks to the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty signed in 1972 to clear the way for the United States to deploy the NMD project.

Russia, strongly opposing the deployment of an NMD system by the U.S., rejects any changes to the ABM treaty, arguing that such a move will undermine the world architecture of arms control and the basis of international security.

The U.S. official indicated that the decision to deploy an NMD system was "not a fait accompli." "The president is going to make a decision based on one criterion -- what is in the long-term national interests of the United States."

On a separate arms control issue, the official noted that the United States will stick to the agreement reached between Washington and Moscow in 1997 that the two countries will negotiate a cut to a range of 2,000 to 2,500 nuclear warheads in the START III talks.

Referring to the Russian proposal that each side reduces their nuclear arsenal to 1,500, the official said: "That's been out there for some time. What we have said to the Russians is we think 2,000-2,500 is appropriate, it's the right number."



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