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U.S. Says Russia Splits NATO by Missile Proposal
U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen said on Wednesday that a Russian proposal for a joint NATO-European anti-missile defense plan could be genuine, or it could just be an effort to split the western alliance.
Cohen made the remarks during his flight to Brussels for a NATO defense ministers' meeting, according to an Associated Press (AP) report.
"There's a lot of vagueness involved in his proposal ... and they have yet to become clear," Cohen told reporters.
"It could be a constructive proposal, but it could be simply a tactic to divide the European members of NATO from the United States," he said.
"I think there has been an attempt over the last year or two to divide the Europeans from NATO," the report quoted Cohen as saying.
The United States will decide whether to deploy a national missile defense (NMD) system later in the year. Such a move would violate the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty signed by Moscow and Washington in 1972 and therefore Washington is persuading Moscow to agree to modify the treaty.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, when meeting U.S. President Clinton last week, has proposed working with NATO and Europe on a joint anti-missile defense system.
The European members of the western alliance, fearing that the U.S. project of NMD will decouple the alliance and may also result in arms race with Russia, also oppose the project.
"We've made some headway with our allies, who I think were initially either doubtful, skeptical or less enthusiastic about it, but based on my presentations to them, many changed their mind," Cohen said.
"Now, I think we have more work to do in persuading them that the system we have in mind would pose no threat to the Russians," Cohen added.
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