September 4, 2006 :: U.S. Department of State :: News
At their recent meeting in Fairbanks, Alaska, on August 27, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov discussed the Bush administration plan to arm Trident-2 ballistic missiles deployed on submarines with conventional, as opposed to nuclear weapons, reports the U.S. Department of State. The move would allow for rapid, pre-emptive strikes against rogue nations or terrorist organizations anywhere in the world. At the meeting, Rumsfeld suggested that Russia consider pursuing missile conversions as well. “If either of our countries or our friends and allies were threatened at some number of years into the future with a weapon of mass destruction or a capability that was that lethal, I think any president, whether of Russia or the United States, would like to have available a conventional weapon that could attack that party quickly and accurately and precisely and not feel that the only thing they had might be a nuclear weapon which they would not want to use,” he said. Ivanov noted his concern that such launches could be mistaken for a pre-emptive nuclear attack, potentially leading to a retaliatory strike. He stated that this criticism was a matter of particular concern for the Russian government and would require further discussions before Russia would support the proposal or convert any of its missiles. “These are preliminary plans,” the Defense Minister stressed, “I cannot announce right now that Russia will join such [an] initiative right now.”
The discussions between Rumsfeld and Ivanov follow the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee’s decision on July 20 to cut all but $5 million of the $127 million in initial funding for the Navy’s Conventional Trident Modification Program. In a report accompanying the defense appropriation bills, the Senate Appropriations Committee wrote its belief that “fundamental issues about the use of this weapon must be addressed prior to investing in this effort.” It added: “It is not clear that other potentially less provocative alternatives, such as land and air-based options, have been considered.” (Article)
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