US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Tuesday defended the US decision to scrap the ABM treaty and said Washington will not negotiate new arms control agreements in today's uncertain security environment.
In remarks prepared for delivery to NATO defense ministers, Rumsfeld said the unilateral US decision to withdraw from the treaty in six months should not affect progress with Russia.
He noted that the United States and Russia have committed to slashing their nuclear arsenals and would work together to ensure the process was transparent and predictable.
But he said a review of the US nuclear posture that is near completion would emphasize "adapting and transforming our forces to counter new threats we will face in a rapidly changing, and uncertain security environment."
"Ensuring our security in such an environment will require flexibility and adaptability -- which is why we cannot afford to be constrained by new arms control agreements," he said.
"Of particular concern is the fact that terrorist networks and terrorist states are seeking weapons of increasing power and range -- asymmetric capabilities that could allow them to hold our people hostage to terror and blackmail," Rumsfeld said.
Rumsfeld met here late Monday with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, who said Russia was prepared to move full speed ahead on a new security arrangement despite the withdrawal from the ABM treaty.
US and Russian experts will meet next month to discuss a timetable for the reductions and measures to ensure that the process is transparent, they said.
Ivanov reiterated Russia's concern that scrapping the treaty, a cornerstone of the Cold War arms control regime, was a mistake that could encourage an arms race by other nations.
But he said the action, which will allow unconstrained development and deployment of US defenses against long-range ballistic missile, posed no threat to Russia's national security.
"I believe that this shows that the US-Russian relationship has matured to the point that we can agree to disagree agreeably on the ABM treaty, without allowing those differences to affect progress in other areas of our relationship," Rumsfeld said in his prepared statement.
Ivanov emphasized the importance that Russia attaches to reductions in US and Russian nuclear arsenals.
President George W. Bush has pledged to reduce US arsenals from 7,000 today to a range of 2,200 to 1,700 warheads, while Russia's President Vladimir Putin said Russia will reduce its strategic nuclear weapons to between 2,200 and 1,500.
Rumsfeld said in his prepared comments that two successful missile defense tests earlier showed that the capability to defend against ballistic missiles "is within our grasp."
But he said the Pentagon's testing and development program had run up against the limits of the ABM treaty, which prohibits deployment of a national missile defense system -- AFP
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