13 December 2001
Bush's Move On ABM Pact Gives Pause To Europeans
By Steven Erlanger
The New York Times

The American move will create "some clouds on the horizon," a senior German official said, mentioning other recent American positions suspending negotiations on the strengthening of the biological weapons convention and opposing the proposed International Criminal Court.

The officials - in France, Italy and Germany - were circumspect, given the lack of a formal White House announcement, and said leaders of the 15 European Union nations were preparing a joint response. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell gave German, French and British leaders signals that the decision was coming when he talked with them on his way back from Moscow on Monday and Tuesday, the officials said.

The Germans said they had discussed the ABM treaty and other issues like biological weapons with Secretary Powell, who argued that attitudes in the White House and Congress were becoming more nuanced than when President Bush took office in January.

"Our effort was to say that at this point there were a number of things coming up where we have some clouds on the horizon, despite close cooperation now, and that we face challenges there and need to overcome them," the official said.

A senior Italian official said worries about relations between Russia and the United States would not be as deep now as a few months ago, after cooperation over Afghanistan and the meetings between Mr. Bush and President Vladimir V. Putin.

"But this raises again the question of unilateralism," the Italian official said. "It will be damaging in the effort to keep the United States involved and engaged in the international treaties that do exist."

He wondered whether it was necessary to abrogate the treaty now, or whether the decision was tied to the successful progress of the war in Afghanistan, making allied support less important. "Why announce it now?" he asked. "Was it that urgent? Frankly, we don't know, and we don't believe that it was."

The question that arises is the nature of the Bush administration's understanding of national interest, said a German official involved in relations with the United States. In the past, Washington determined its national interest in shaping international rules, behavior and institutions.

"Now Washington seems to want to pursue its national interest in a more narrowly defined way, doing what it wants and forcing others to adapt," the official said.

In arms control, for instance, the old question was whether the Russians could be trusted to live up to their promises, so those promises were codified in treaties. "Now the United States is deciding that it's better to be unlimited itself than to limit the Russians," the official said.

In Britain today the American decision to withdraw from the ABM treaty was not even raised during Prime Minister Tony Blair's question time in front of Parliament.

But later this evening, the leader of the opposition Conservative Party, Iain Duncan Smith, wrote an open letter to Mr. Blair demanding to know if the British government supported Mr. Bush's decision and if it would "play a full and active role in the development of a missile defense shield," as the Conservatives favor.

A Downing Street official said Britain would be willing to make its crucial radar stations at Fylingdales and Menwith Hill, operated jointly with Washington, available for any American missile defense system.

Europeans accept that Washington will build a missile defense, or try to, if it chooses. They are concentrating more on limiting any perceived damage, from Moscow or their own constituents, or using the decision in domestic politics.

The senior German official said: "Europeans will see a continued, general skepticism toward arms control by the Bush administration. But the problem is less about missile defense than about treaties, about how much the Bush administration respects international obligations."

Last week, in Geneva, the United States proposed suspending for a year talks to strengthen the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention, after arguing that proposals to ensure that signatories kept to the treaty were counter to American business and defense interests and would not slow the spread of the weapons.

The American position apparently took European allies by surprise. Last week, too, the Senate added an amendment to the military appropriations bill that would keep American soldiers from obeying the jurisdiction of the  proposed International Criminal Court in the Hague.

"Big partners should consult with smaller partners," a senior French official said. "Alliances mean consultation."

13 December 13 2001
Putin Says U.S. Wrong Over ABM, Europe Split
By Jon Boyle
Reuters

In his first comments on the confirmation by President Bush that the United States would pull out of the accord in six months, Putin said in an address to the nation that the long-heralded move posed no threat to Russian security.

"The U.S. leadership spoke of this several times and such a step is not unexpected for us. However we think such a step is mistaken," a somber Putin said on state-run RTR television.

Russia had long possessed the means to overcome missile defenses, he said. "Therefore I fully believe that the decision taken by the President of the United States does not pose a threat to the national security of the Russian Federation."

And he signaled an intent to avoid making a drama out of a crisis, saying: "The present level of bilateral cooperation between Russia and the United States should not only be preserved but also used for quickly working out new frameworks of strategic cooperation."

He made clear that Moscow was determined to press ahead with deep cuts in strategic nuclear warheads but emphasized they had to be codified in legally binding documents.

Putin said the cuts Russia was seeking were down to a range of 1,500 to 2,200 on each side. This is close to the figures of 1,700 to 2,200 that Bush flagged at the Crawford summit in November.

The Russian leader later spoke to Jiang Zemin, leader of fellow nuclear power China, agreeing on the need for stability.

In western Europe, nuclear powers Britain and France were cautious in their responses to Bush's move.

But a senior diplomatic source in the European Union criticized "unilateralist" tendencies and said the ABM move dented EU hopes for a more consensual approach to diplomacy from Washington after the September 11 attacks on the United States.

CHINESE CALL

Bush says the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) pact is a Cold War relic hampering his desire to build a missile shield to protect the United States from attack by "rogue missiles."

Putin said Russia had resisted U.S. pleas for a joint pull-out from the pact and did all it could to preserve it.

As the world faced new security threats, he said, it would be inadmissible to allow a legal vacuum in the realm of strategic stability or slacken off in the fight against the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

Moscow says ABM's demise will unravel three decades of arms control and undermine international security at a time when the Afghan crisis puts strategic stability at a premium.

Russian news agencies quoted "informed military-diplomatic sources" as saying Russia had prepared two dozen measures in response. Moscow would also be within its rights to ignore arms limits imposed by the START-2 arms reduction accord which Washington has not fully ratified.

Reporting the telephone call between Putin and Jiang, the Kremlin said they shared the same approach toward "supporting the strategic balance in the world and preserving international stability and security."

Beijing fears its small nuclear arsenal will be made redundant by U.S. plans to deploy a limited missile shield to protect itself against missile threats from "rogue states."

EUROPE DIVIDED

Britain, Washington's staunchest ally in Bush's "war on terrorism," played down the U.S. withdrawal from the ABM, saying it was a bilateral issue between Russia and the United States.

"What is important is the maintenance of strategic stability rather than...the particular framework to achieve it," said a spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair.

A French Foreign Ministry spokesman said Paris feared a legal void if the ABM treaty were not replaced. "We are attached to the existence of a binding legal structure, a key element for international security," the official said.

Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh urged Bush to work with Russia and China on disarmament and non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. She added that China should not use the U.S. decision to build up its own arsenal.

In Brussels, the European Union had no official comment.

But a senior EU diplomatic source said EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana had discussed the issue with Germany's Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer. It was unlikely to be raised at an EU summit starting on Friday because Europe was too divided, the source said.

"What we are seeing is a new peak of U.S. unilateralism again," the source said. "It is worrying."

"This comes at the same time as there is a lot of discussion within the U.S. administration on 'Phase Two' of the war on terrorism, with talk of going for Somalia and Iraq. At the same time there is this ABM decision.

"The hope that the U.S. was turning back toward multilateralism after September 11 is
being dashed."

13 December 2001
Putin: U.S. ABM Withdrawal a 'Mistake'
By SARAH KARUSH
Associated Press Writer

MOSCOW (AP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin called the U.S. decision to withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty a "mistake" Thursday, but said it would pose no military threat to Russia.

In a nationwide television address, Putin repeated Russia's frequently stated position that the 1972 treaty is a cornerstone of world security.

This step was not a surprise for us. However, we consider it a mistake," Putin said. "Now, when the world has confronted new threats, we must not allow a legal vacuum in the sphere of strategic stability."

President Bush gave Moscow formal notice on Thursday that Washington was withdrawing from the treaty. The decision comes into effect in six months.

Washington has long tried to persuade Russia to modify the treaty, which prohibits national missile defense systems. Despite a marked improvement in U.S.-Russian relations in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, Moscow has refused to budge.

Putin said Russia's own security would not threatened by the withdrawal.

"Russia, like the United States and unlike other nuclear powers, has long had an effective system capable of penetrating missile defense," he said.

However, other nations, including China, may feel less secure. Chinese officials have warned that their country may respond by increasing the number of its nuclear warheads.

Putin discussed the ABM treaty on Thursday with Chinese President Jiang Zemin, the Kremlin said. The two leaders emphasized the need for further cooperation to preserve stability in the world, Putin's press service said in a statement.

Putin also spoke to Indian Prime Minister Bihari Vajpayee, who expressed support for Russia's position, the Kremlin said.

In his speech, Putin said Russia was ready to make further cuts in its nuclear arsenal. Many observers predicted Russia would respond in the opposite way - by building up its nuclear capacity.

Last month, Bush said the United States would reduce the number of its nuclear warheads by two-thirds to between 1,700 and 2,200.

Putin said Thursday that Russia was ready to bring the number of its warheads down to between 1,500 and 2,200. He pushed for these cuts to be written into a formal treaty, something Bush has opposed.

Russia has long held that scrapping the ABM treaty would cause the whole edifice of arms control treaties to crumble. But Bush contends that the treaty is a relic of the Cold War and a roadblock to mounting a U.S. defense against missile attack.

Dmitry Rogozin, chairman of parliament's international affairs committee, said the ABM withdrawal would "untie Russia's hands" with respect to earlier arms control treaties.

Other lawmakers said the move was an insult, coming as it did against a backdrop of improved relations.

"The U.S. decision doesn't look right at the time when our two nations have become close partners in the coalition against terror," said Grigory Yavlinsky, the leader of the liberal Yabloko party.

Putin said the good relations between the two countries must be preserved and "used to work out a new framework of strategic relations as soon as possible."