By Astrid Wendlandt in Moscow Published: January 30 2001 22:01GMT | Last Updated: January 30 2001 22:20GMT Rudolf Scharping, Germany's defence minister, on Tuesday called for the preservation of longstanding international nuclear arms agreements, which Russia thinks would come under threat if the US pushed ahead with the development of a new missile defence system. Acting as a spokesman for Europe's concerns about growing tensions between Russia and the US on nuclear defence issues, Mr Scharping said during an official visit to Moscow that "Russia and the United States needed to find common solutions". Russia on Tuesday made clear that it thought the US's new defence programme would entail significant changes to the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty, an agreement seen as one of the keystones of global nuclear stability. Following talks with Mr Scharping, Igor Sergeyev, his Russian counterpart, said Russia continued to see the ABM treaty as an untouchable foundation for all disarmament talks. "Tearing up this accord would lead to an arms race, including the most dangerous form of arms race - with missile technology," he said. Mr Scharping said the rising number of countries with nuclear weapons "created additional threats to the global system of nuclear defence". While acknowledging US intentions to develop a new missile defence system, Mr Scharping tried to assuage Russia's fears by pressing the fact that the US project was not yet ready. "We need to take into consideration the technological problems of this system," Mr Scharping said. His calls for the preservation of existing international nuclear arms treaties came a day after Dick Cheney, the US vice-president, said the US reserved the right to withdraw from the 1972 ABM treaty if it could not be amended. Russian defence experts think any changes to the ABM treaty would put into the question the implementation of other bilateral and multilateral nuclear arms reduction treaties. "If the ABM treaty is abandoned, this would undermine the validity of many other important nuclear arms reduction treaties," said Alexander Pikayev, a nuclear defence analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Moscow. _______________________________________________ Crashlist website: http://website.lineone.net/~resource_base
