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Russia Stresses Necessity of Dialogue on Missile Defense
Russia and the United States should maintain a constructive dialogue on strategic issues, in particular, on anti-missile defense, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Saturday.
Moscow and Washington have "obviously different views" on most problems, but both sides agreed that "dialogue be maintained between Russia and the U.S. and we act not as rivals but as partners in discussing these problems," Ivanov told the Russian TV channel on the results of his visit in Washington.
The U.S. says that the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty is outmoded and should be replaced, although "it does not offer any specific formulas that could replace the 1972 treaty," the foreign minister said.
"In our view, the 1972 ABM treaty and everything the two sides have worked out to develop it provide a very broad set of instruments for preserving and improving strategic stability," he said.
"It is important that we have begun a constructive dialogue, a constructive discussion on all these issues with experts, representatives from defense and other structures involved," the foreign minister said. "There are grounds to hope that there will not be unilateral moves but moves taking into account each other's interests," he said.
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