| http://www.allnews.ru/english/2001/05/28/pro/
Updated 28.05.2001 at 18:50:55 U.S. Wants To Buy Russia's Consent To Leave ABM Treaty The Bush administration is preparing an offer of arms and military equipments purchases as well as joint antimissile exercises, trying to get Russia's cooperation in leaving the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty, The New York Times reported, quoting Administration representatives. It is expected that the Administration will propose to buy Russia's S-300 "surface-to-air" missiles that could be integrated into a defensive shield to be built over Russia and Europe in future years. In addition the USA is going to hold joint military exercises, to provide money for Russia's radar system and to exchange missiles-alarm data. Moreover, to do its proposal more winning the Bush administration may include some nonmilitary matters in it. The White House is already discussing with Russia economic aid or help in developing legal and commercial systems that would make Russia more attractive to Western investors. Some of these proposals have been communicated to Russian officials, but there is no indication of a response. The final cooperation programme will be presented during a meeting between President Bush and President Putin on June 16 in Slovenia. "We want to convince the Russians that to leave the 1972 ABM treaty to go on to new relationships is in their best interest", said Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's national security adviser. American analysts believe Mr. Bush extremely needs Russia's agreement to dispense with the ABM treaty not only to overcome strong objections of Western Europe but also to win Senate's cooperation, which is under Democratic control now. The American offer to cooperate with Moscow would almost certainly worry China that also strongly opposed Bush's planes on the National Missiles Defence System. White House officials say they are ready to consider the possibility to cooperate with Beijing too. At the same time Russia's Defence Minister Sergey Ivanov stated at a press conference on Monday that they received no offer from the United States to buy S-300 systems, Interfax news agency reported. The minister stressed in any case it would not solve the ABM treaty issue. "If the proposal is made, we will consider it at a meeting of the commission for military-technical cooperation, which is led by the Russian president. Basically we supply S-300 systems to many countries. Dozens of countries have adopted these military complexes," Ivanov said. |
