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Powell, Ivanov to Discuss New Treaty Language
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell could begin discussing new treaty language to govern their countries' "strategic framework" when they meet for the third time this week, Powell said Monday.
Their meeting Friday in Washington will be longer than earlier get-togethers in Cairo and Paris, and each man will have a team of experts at his side, Powell said in an interview with the Cable News Network (CNN).
Powell's meeting with Ivanov follows a Moscow visit last week by a high-level U.S. delegation for consultations on President George W. Bush's missile defence plan.
The U.S. secretary of state called those meetings "the beginning of a professional, responsible discussion between two nations who have a mutual interest in making sure we bring down the level of offensive arms in the world and to take action to protect our populations against weapons of mass destruction that might come from nations that do not mean either of us well".
Powell repeated the Bush administration's stance that the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty is "irrelevant" to the strategic situation of 2001. "What we want to do is speak to the Russians about how we can move to a (new) strategic framework, which might be ... another treaty - we're not usre what it is yet. We're not foreclosing any option," he said.
Asked if negotiations were already underway on a replacement treaty for the ABM pact, Powell said, "This Friday we'll have more time than in the past, and we may well get into language. I don't know yet."
The talks will start "more philosophically", he said, with the U.S. side repeating its arguments for missile defence, "and then start getting into the nitty gritty of arms control treaties and where we might go from here".
Powell said he and Ivanov had been in "almost constant contact" over the past week trying to arrange an early meeting between Bush and President Vladimir Putin.
"Both presidents ... are anxious to get together, and Igor and I have it as our task to find a place and time to meet as soon as possible," Powell said. A meeting would come "no later than" the Group of 8 summit in Genoa on July 20-22, "and hopefully before that," he said.
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