13 December 2001
U.S. Withdraws From ABM Treaty
By BARRY SCHWEID
AP Diplomatic Writer

13 December 13 2001
Bush Pulls Out of ABM Treaty;
Putin Calls Move a Mistake
By TERENCE NEILAN
New York Times

In a move that reflected what he said was "a vastly different world," President Bush formally announced today that the United States was withdrawing from the Antiballistic Missile Treaty that it signed with the Soviet Union in 1972.

Russia termed the move a mistake, but said it did not feel threatened by the decision. China, which was not a signatory to the pact, repeated its oppositon to the missile defense system proposed by the Bush administration.

In making his announcement, Mr. Bush declared at the White House Rose Garden, "I have concluded the ABM treaty hinders our government's ways to protect our people from future terrorist or rogue state missile attacks."

"Defending the American people is my highest priority as commander in chief," he added, "and I cannot and will not allow the United States to remain in a treaty that prevents us from developing effective defenses."

Mr. Bush said he had given Russia formal notice of the move today. He added that he had forged common ground for a new strategic relationship with Moscow at a number of meetings with President Vladimir V. Putin, whom he referred to as "my friend."

The two leaders had agreed, President Bush said, that "my decision to withdraw from the treaty will not, in any way, undermine our new relationship or Russian security."

But in Moscow today Mr. Putin, while saying that the decision was not unexpected, repeated in a nationwide television address Russia's oft-stated position that the treaty is a cornerstone of world security. He said the decision to withdraw was "an erroneous one."

"As is well known, Russia and the U.S., unlike other nuclear powers, have for a long time possessed effective 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."

Other Russian officials acknowledged that under the terms of the treaty, the United States had the right to withdraw after giving six months' notice. But the head of Russia's armed forces, Gen. Anatoly Kvashnin, said the pullout "will  alter the nature of the international strategic balance in freeing the hands of a series of countries to restart an arms buildup."

In Beijing China used muted language today to register its displeasure today with the Bush announcement.

"We have taken note of the reports and express our concern over them," said Zhang Qiyue, the foreign ministry spokeswoman. China has been staunchly opposed the pullout ever since the White House first floated the idea this year.

Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman, said the president had not ruled out making a new agreement or policy on arms reduction.

"Nobody's ruling out other documents that would be presidential statements or codifications," Mr. Fleischer said at a news briefing this afternoon.

But he added that "it's not in the cards on missile defense."

Asked whether the Chinese government had said it would increase its nuclear arsenal in response to the American decision, Mr. Fleischer said those "issues came up."

Mr. Fleischer said Mr. Bush told the Chinese government that "a nation like China that has the ability to launch many numbers of missiles at the United States could not be stopped."

The missile defense system, Mr. Fleischer said, "is not aimed at China."

In his announcement, Mr. Bush said the recent terror threats underlined the need for the United States to develop a missile defense.

"The 1972 ABM treaty was signed by the United States and the Soviet Union at a much different time, in a vastly different world," Mr. Bush said. "One of the signatories, the Soviet Union, no longer exists. And neither does the hostility that once led both our countries to keep thousands of nuclear weapons on hair-trigger alert, pointed at each other.

"The grim theory was that neither side would launch a nuclear attack because it knew the other would respond, thereby destroying both.

"Today, as the events of Sept. 11 made all too clear, the greatest threats to both our
countries come not from each other, or other big powers in the world, but from terrorists who strike without warning or rogue states who seek weapons of mass destruction."

He added: "We know that the terrorists, and some of those who support them, seek the ability to deliver death and destruction to our doorstep via missiles. And we must have the freedom and flexibility to develop effective defenses against those attacks."

Mr. Bush was accompanied at the announcement by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Gen. Richard B. Myers, the chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff, and Condoleezza Rice, his national security adviser.

13 December 2001
Chronology of Nuclear Standoff
By The Associated Press

December 2001: President Bush alerts congressional leaders that he will withdraw from the 1972 ABM Treaty.

November 2001: During a U.S. summit, Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin
emphasize their shared commitment to nuclear arms reductions, but fail to reach a compromise on Bush's plans for a national missile defense, which would violate the 1972 ABM Treaty. Putin vows that the issue would not harm relations between the two nations as it had in the past.

October 2001: The Pentagon announces it has put off several missile defense tests scheduled for the fall to avoid being accused of violating the ABM Treaty. Bush and Putin also hold separate talks following the annual meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders, in preparation for their November summit.

August 2001 - September 2001: Several Bush administration Cabinet members and officials meet intermittently with their Russian counterparts but have little success in breaking down Russian opposition to the notion of scrapping the ABM Treaty.

July 2001: Bush and Putin agree to tie U.S. plans for building a missile defense shield to talks on reducing both nations' nuclear stockpiles.

May 2001: Bush declares, "We need a new framework that allows us to build missile defenses to counter the different threats of today's world."

2000: President Clinton decides not to authorize work to begin on deploying national missile defense.

1997: Members of a congressionally chartered panel chaired by Donald Rumsfeld are named to examine missile threats to the United States.

1993: President George H.W. Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin sign START II treaty.

1991: Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev sign the START I Treaty. Soviet Union disbands.

1989: Berlin Wall falls. Soviet Union cuts conventional forces in Europe.

1987: President Reagan and Gorbachev sign the INF Treaty, which bans ground-launched, medium-range nuclear missiles.

1986: An agreement to drastically reduce strategic nuclear arms collapses at the Reykjavik summit because of Soviet opposition to American Strategic Defense Initiative development.

1983: Reagan announces during a nationally televised speech that the United States will embark on an extensive research and development program to examine the feasibility of a missile defense program.

1982: Soviets and United States begin Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START).

1979: In response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, President Carter withdraws the SALT II treaty from Senate consideration.

1972: President Nixon and Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev sign the SALT I agreement, and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

1968: President Johnson says the United States and Soviet Union will discuss limits on strategic nuclear arsenals and ballistic missile defenses. Talks are canceled when Moscow invades Czechoslovakia in August.

1962: Cuban missile crisis.

1961: Berlin Wall built. Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba fails.

1957: Soviet Union launches Sputnik, the first earth-orbiting satellite.

1950s: Cold War accelerates.

1949: The Soviet Union explodes its first atomic bomb.

1945: The United States drops atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima to end World War II.

Sources: Associated Press reports, Center for Defense Information and Ballistic Missile Defense Organization.

13 December 2001
Bush notifies Russia he is scuttling landmark 1972 ABM arms control treaty

"Defending the American people is my highest priority as commander in chief and I cannot and will not allow the United States to remain in a treaty that prevents us from
developing effective defences," Bush said.

Bush emerged from a meeting with his National Security Council to make the announcement in the Rose Garden, with Secretary of State Colin Powell, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Richard Myers and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice at his side.

"The Cold War is long gone," Bush said. "Today we leave behind one of its last vestiges. But this is not a day for looking back. This is a day for looking forward with hope of greater prosperity and peace."

"We're moving to replace mutually assured destruction with mutual co-operation," Bush said.

Bush said he and his top advisers, before making the decision public, had gone over the same issues he had discussed with the Russian president - "my friend President Vladimir Putin," Bush called him - over several meetings this year.

"President Putin and I have also agreed that my decision to withdraw from the treaty will not in any way undermine our new relationship or Russian security," Bush said.

The U.S. ambassador to Moscow delivered formal notice of Bush's decision to Russian officials at 4:30 a.m. EST, according to a senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The brief legal document invokes Article 15 of the 29-year-old treaty to give Russia six months' notice of Bush's intentions. The official said Bush had, in effect, pulled out of the treaty with the notification, though the United States cannot conduct missile tests barred by the treaty for six months.

At 9 a.m. EST, formal notice was given to Ukraine, Kazakstan and Belarus, former Soviet states that signed memoranda of understanding tying them to the pact during the Clinton administration.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov said the decision was regrettable because it undermined global strategic balances - but that he was not concerned about Russia's security.

"Russia can be unconcerned with its defence systems," said Kasyanov, who was in Brazil for a two-day visit. "Maybe other nations should be concerned if the United States chooses to abandon the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty."

Canadian leaders have previously taken what they characterized as a wait-and-see
approach, saying they could not make a decision on the missile defence plan until more details were available on the U.S. strategy.

Defence Minister Art Eggleton has said Ottawa wants to know how the U.S. position would affect overall security, arms control and nuclear non-proliferation.

The ABM Treaty prohibiting nuclear missile defences has been the cornerstone of nuclear arms control for a generation. It is based on the theory of mutually assured destruction, or MAD: that one nuclear state is unlikely to attack another because it would face a devastating counter-strike.

Critics of withdrawal say deployment of an effective defence by one country effectively disarms other nuclear states, forcing them to take expensive counter-measures, increasing the overall threat to the world's nuclear security.

Bush, who campaigned last year on building the kind of missile defence shield banned by the treaty, said the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks made his cause more urgent.

"Today, the events of Sept. 11 made all too clear the greatest threats to both our countries come not from each other or other big powers in the world but from terrorist attacks who strike without warning or rogue states who seek weapons of mass destruction," Bush said.

The president emphasized his appreciation of Russia's help in the U.S.-led war on terrorism and he reiterated his pledge to reduce Washington's nuclear arsenal, a commitment Putin had sought and won when the two presidents met last month in the U.S. capital.

Putin cautioned last winter that jettisoning the treaty could lead to the unravelling of three decades of arms control accords. China has also warned a new arms race could ensue as have several U.S. allies.

But according to Bush administration officials, Putin assured Bush during their October talks in Washington and Crawford, Tex., that U.S.-Russian relations would not suffer even if Bush pulled out of the treaty.

The Bush administration intends to co-operate with Russia at least to the extent of informing Moscow of steps being taken to advance the missile-shield program.

That's not likely to stop Russia from taking retaliatory steps. A senior Russian legislator predicted Russia will pull out of the Start I and Start II arms reduction treaties.

"We believe that offensive and defensive tools of nuclear deterrence must be linked," said Dmitry Rogozin, chairman of the international affairs committee of the Duma, Russia's parliament, according to Interfax news agency.

Such a spiral of withdrawals would be dangerous - and predictable, said Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Senate armed services committee.

"Unilateral withdrawal will likely lead to an action-reaction cycle in offensive and defensive technologies, including countermeasures," he said. "That kind of arms race would not make us more secure."

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle called withdrawing from the treat "a high price to pay for testing that's not required this early" for missile defence.

Spurgeon Keeny, a senior fellow at the National Academy of Science, said the treaty is regarded internationally as the foundation of strategic stability, and Bush's repudiation "is a tragic and scandalous development."

Keeny said Bush was taking unilateral action "in the face of strong opposition by our allies as well as potential adversaries."