Rumsfeld Tries to Persuade Russians to Accept US Ideas

US Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld Friday tried to convince Russians the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty has outlived its usefulness.

During a meeting between NATO and Russian defense ministers, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov indicated that if Washington wants to abandon the 1972 ABM treaty, the Russians can' t stop them. But he wanted to know what would be put in its place.

Rumsfeld said the United States wanted to come up with a new system of defense that would make sense for the 21st century.

"I told the (Russian) minister something I believe very deeply. The Russian people and the people of the United States want the same thing, a stable world, a world of peace," Rumsfeld said.

Ivanov told reporters that after Washington and Moscow signed the 1972 ABM treaty, 32 other agreements and treaties were signed "creating the entire regime of arms control."

"So we would like to understand exactly what is intended to replace the existing system to assure strategic stability in the future," he said.

Ivanov also said he did not get the impression that Rumsfeld was trying to convince him to "tear up the 1972 ABM treaty," and agreed that new, multifaceted threats face both the United States and Russia.

NATO defense ministers opened the second-day of their spring session by meeting Ivanov in the NATO-Russia Permanent Joint Council, a forum created in 1997 when the first former Warsaw Pact countries joined NATO.

Ivanov said Moscow views the main threats today as "religious extremism, terrorism and the influx of drugs." Future threats, he added, are proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Ivanov agreed that there is a danger of threats from medium-range missiles, "something we would take very, very seriously."

Ivanov said Russia has agreed to send a team of military experts to Brussels soon to answer questions from the NATO members on a Russian proposal.

The entire question of missile defense will be on the agenda of Russian President Vladimir Putin's summit in Ljubljana, Slovenia June 16 with US. President George W. Bush.






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