Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart George W. Bush are not expected to sign a broad strategic missile agreement during their mid-November summit, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Friday.
"The question of the signing of a broad agreement on strategic stability is not on the agenda" of the November 13-15 summit to be held in Washington and on Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, Ivanov told reporters.
At the same time Ivanov stressed that "we are carrying out active work in the run-up to the meeting of the two presidents.
"There are difficult consultations on defense and offensive weapons," Ivanov said.
Commenting on The Washington Post's report Thursday that Putin and Bush were likely to announce an agreement to allow testing for a missile defense system and cut strategic nuclear warheads by two-thirds, but not scrap the ABM, Ivanov said: "It is premature to speak of such accords." -- MOSCOW (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
