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Russia Urges US to Resume Dialogue on Strategic Security
Russia on Tuesday called on the United States to resume dialogue with Moscow on the vital issues of strategic stability and global security, which "have pile up to a critical level."
Moscow seeks the earliest restoration of the Russian-American security dialogue. "We are ready for such dialogue and our concrete proposals are on the table. Now it is time for the US to make its move," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Tuesday.
The statement came in response to the earlier remarks by US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy Paul Wolfowitz in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph. They described Russia as " a main disseminator of weapons of mass destruction" and declared that the cornerstone of the international 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty is "in fact dead and the only thing left to do is to renounce it 'legally.'"
Moscow sees the statements by Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz as "an open confrontation to Russia, a provocation without any grounds," the ministry said.
The statement noted that the Americans' allegations "in the spirit of the Cold War" were made in a bid to justify the US plan for a national missile defense shield.
"The peremptory statements of D. Rumsfeld and P. Wolfowitz obviously run counter to the public position of the new US president, namely that Russia and the United States are not opponents and do not threaten each other," the ministry stressed.
Moscow believes that "now there is a need not for propagandistic duels or the repetition of 'Cold-War' labels, but for the soonest start of a constructive dialogue between Russia and the US to preserve strategic stability and find mutually acceptable solutions to all security problems that have accumulated."
Russia is ready for such constructive dialogue and has put its concrete proposals on the table. "Now the ball is in Americans' hands," the ministry said.
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