August 8, 2005 :: Itar-Tass :: News
The head of the Russian armed forces’ General Staff, General Yuriy Baluyevsky, recently addressed the subject of Russian-U.S. cooperation in strategic missile defense to an audience of journalists, during his visit to the United States. Missile defense discussions were said to be one of the important reasons for his visit, according to Itar Tass. Buluyevsky said that such cooperation is possible but laid out certain conditions.
So far Russian-American cooperation in the field of missile defense has been confined mainly to the fight against [shorter-range] tactical missiles. But we understand now that the U.S. has seceded from the ABM Treaty, the question of non-strategic missile defense is no longer as acute as it used to be. Our approach towards cooperation in the field of missile defence is on the whole quite simple: it must be based not on the ‘your ideas, our money’ principle, but on the ‘joint ideas, joint money, joint results’ principle.
“All these problems can be solved,” he added. But the United States should approach with care the subject of cooperation with Russia on “strategic missile defense,” a euphemism for defenses against advanced long-range ICBMs and SLBMs such as the sort maintained by Russia and China, our strategic competitors. Russia long opposed the United States’ pursuit of ballistic missile defenses for the very reason that it would negate their offensive nuclear missile forces. The agreements signed in 1997 by the Clinton administration which allowed for very limited missile defenses against “theater”—i.e., short range missiles—were an accommodation to a growing missile threat which was far short of permitting more substantial missile defenses. Full withdrawal from the ABM Treaty was necessary for that. Unfortunately, the United States has not yet ambitiously enough pursued the very opportunities permitted by that withdrawal. But the United States should not expect that cooperation with Russia on missile defense will change Russia’s opposition to the negation of its offensive nuclear forces. The Russian “solution” to various problems may therefore not be the solution which will provide the United States with a strategic defense. (Article)
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