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| Europe |
| Putin, Bush to Focus on Missile Defense |
| 2003-05-05 |
| Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Bush will discuss possible cooperation in missile defense when they meet this month at St. Petersburg's 300th anniversary celebration, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Sunday. Moscow said in January that it had proposed a draft ``political agreement'' for the two nations to cooperate in developing defenses against ballistic missiles. It released no details of the proposal but said it hopes Washington would agree to the deal. There has been no U.S. comment on the proposal. "George, here's the deal. You give us the technology we need to build a defense that can shoot down your missiles. And we'll need about $40 billion or so to build it." "And what do we get, Vladimir?" "We'll keep our word to disarm. And you know you can always take me at my word!" "Um, we'll get back to you." Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said Sunday that missile defense was to be discussed in the context of the latest U.S.-Russian arms treaty, which is expected to be ratified by the Russian legislature before the celebration at the end of May. The treaty, which Putin and Bush signed in May 2002, calls on both nations to cut their strategic nuclear arsenals by about two-thirds, to 1,700 to 2,200 deployed warheads, by 2012. ``It is a very serious issue which, we think, will be a very important channel for further interaction and strategic military partnership between Russia and the United States,'' Yakovenko was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency. He said that Washington and Moscow could cooperate on so-called theater missile defense, Interfax reported. Except they don't need one, and we do. Russia opposed the U.S. withdrawal last year from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which banned nationwide missile defenses of the type the Bush administration wants to build. Reiterating criticism of the U.S. move earlier this year, Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Russia was eager to cooperate with NATO partners in developing defenses against short-range missiles. On Sunday, Yakovenko also said that Moscow was pushing for a new U.N. treaty to ban weapons in space and at space facilities. Yuri Koptev, the head of Russia's space agency, said that the United States wanted to militarize space. ``This is a destabilizing factor,'' Interfax quoted Koptev as saying. ``If such programs are developed, our doctrine and plans will have to be reviewed in order to deal with the potential threat.'' Is this a back-door attempt to stop our missile defense system? |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #6 You can't believe much of what you read in Al-Guardian--as if they would know about these top secret negotiations. I doubt President Bush will give Vladimir much, particularly after Putin staged those war games and the missiles failed to deploy. I think that Bush likes Putin a lot as a person, knows he has "issues" with democracy and realizes that Russia is still a problem, albeit not the problem it was before 1990. And Russia provides opportunities for us, too--people, oil, trade, etc. |
| Posted by: Jen 2004-05-09 6:59:41 PM |
| #5 Share all the weapon technology with the country which is run by Mafia all the way to the top! Sign me up! I think I want to move to Canada |
| Posted by: Fem Fatalle 2004-05-09 6:47:30 PM |
| #4 Maybe Russia will need it, considering al qaeda has moved to Georgia and Chechnya. |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-05-05 23:27:00 |
| #3 Unless we elect another president like Bill Clinton (Hillary comes to mind) who would be willing to give technology away for campaign contributions. |
| Posted by: Denny 2003-05-05 11:42:28 |
| #2 Yes. |
| Posted by: Ptah 2003-05-05 04:24:43 |
| #1 Why would we want to give them any of our technology, which we KNOW works now. Here's the deal Vlad: 1. Admit you made a mistake, apologize for not supporting us in Iraq and tell us everything about what Russia did for Saddam. 2. You put down Kimmie in North Korea, he's your problem anyway...and the main reason you need a missile defense. You do those two things, maybe we talk. But you don't get our technology...ever. |
| Posted by: R. McLeod 2003-05-05 04:14:33 |