RUSSIA: In a wide-ranging attack on Washington's approach to disarmament, Russia yesterday accused the United States of destabilising the international arms control regime.
It stressed, however, that it would be not responding "in the near future" to the US decision to withdraw unilaterally from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty. Russia regards the ABM agreement as a key component of the post-Cold War system of mutual deterrence.
"The US approach to disarmament issues in many areas is complicating the situation and unsettling the international legal system," the foreign ministry said in a statement issued as US and Russian negotiators prepared to embark on a new round of arms talks in Washington.
The statement highlighted a speech by the US Assistant Secretary of State, Mr John Bolton, at the UN disarmament conference in Geneva last week in which he said Washington's policy on the issue would be "simply pro-American". Stressing the support by an overwhelming majority of countries at the Geneva conference for negotiations to prevent an arms race in space, Russia charged that "only the US sees no need for them".
President Bush announced on December 13th that Washington would withdraw from the 1972 arms-control accord to pursue a missile defence project free from the constraints imposed by the treaty, a move described by Mr Putin, as "a mistake".
Since then Moscow has avoided a confrontation with Washington in favour of talks aimed at redefining their strategic relations.
The foreign ministry statement also criticised the United States for being reluctant to forge ahead with nuclear weapons reductions under the START-2 treaty also signed by Moscow and Washington.
Among other US positions on disarmament that Moscow considers flawed, the statement listed Washington's "refusal to ratify a comprehensive ban on nuclear tests," and its shunning of talks on banning chemical weapons.
Russian and US defence officials held a first round of talks on nuclear weapons cuts in Washington earlier this month but these ended in disagreement after the US confirmed that it wanted to store rather than destroy decommissioned warheads.
Mr Bush has offered to cut the US strategic nuclear arsenal from around 6,000 warheads to as low as 1,700 warheads, while Russia has said it is prepared to slash the Russian nuclear arsenal to 1,500 warheads.
A further source of friction is Washington's reluctance to sign a written treaty, where Russia wants a signed agreement with enforcement mechanisms.
But with a further round of talks due to begin in Washington this week, a defence ministry official noted that Russian military leaders were not contemplating "either a symmetric or an asymmetric" response to the US move to abrogate the ABM treaty.