U.S. Seeks ABM Pact Changes
The Clinton Administration is seeking a compromise with Russia that would allow both countries a limited shield against missile attacks from rogue states, even though such defenses are strictly barred by the landmark 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty (ABM).
U.S. negotiators have proposed that the Americans help Russia finish a major radar installation near Irkutsk, Siberia, oriented across Russia's vast southeastern coast to keep watch on North Korea, among other nations. In exchange, Moscow would agree to alter the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty so that both countries could establish national missile defense systems.
The discussions with Russia have not advanced past preliminary stages, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Sunday on CNN's Late Edition.
Albright said U.S. officials are making it very clear that any American missile defense effort would be directed against Â"rogue states,Â" not Russia. She mentioned Iran and North Korea.
Â"We are very concerned about the development of missile technology, nuclear weapons, by the rogue states and consider that to be a threat to us and to the Russians,Â" Albright said. Â"They are obviously concerned, as are we, about what the future holds. ... We want to work together on dealing with what this major threat is from the rogue states.Â"
Moscow, which has so far refused to alter the ABM pact, announced on Friday that it would work with China to seek broad support at the United Nations against American efforts to alter the accord.
The U.S. is reportedly concerned that non-signatories to the pact, such as North Korea and Iran, were developing the means to manufacture ballistic missiles.
Russian officials insist that Washington has exaggerated the missile threat and say that weakening the treaty would be a reckless move.
"We are open to cooperation," Grigory V. Berdennikof, a senior arms control specialist at Russia's Foreign Ministry, told the New York Times. "But if our cooperation means changing the ABM treaty our answer is 'thanks but no thanks.'"
A senior administration official told The Washington Post for Sunday's editions, "We don't see this as anything against Russia, and we're willing to look at a whole range of cooperative measures that would address the same rogue threat we're concerned about."
A decision on whether to proceed with antimissile defenses is to be made by next summer.
When the Soviet Union built a radar in the 1980s at Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, the United States argued successfully that it was a violation of the treaty and pressed the Russians to dismantle it.
In January, however, President Clinton sent Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin a letter asking Russia to renegotiate the treaty to permit a limited system of defenses, the Times reported.
According to Russian and American officials familiar with the talks, the first phase of the American antimissile systeis to be completed by 2005. It reportedly involves building a powerful new radar in Alaska and deploying up to 100 antimissile interceptors there. American early warning radars in Greenland and Britain and in the United States would also be upgraded.
The second phase is reportedly to be completed by 2010, and could involve construction of a similar radar at Grand Forks, N.D., and deployment of 100 interceptors there.