 |
US to Pursue Withdrawal From ABM Treaty
The Bush administration will inform Russia Monday that it is prepared to press ahead with a unilateral withdrawal from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty to build a missile defense system, according to a senior administration official.
U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton arrived in Moscow Monday for the talks with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Mamedov, which were to be held in London last week but were postponed after the terrorist attacks in the United States.
The U.S. official told the Washington Post that the Bush administration plans to tell Russian in talks Monday that "if anything, the likelihood of unilateral withdrawal has increased" as a result of the attacks at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
"Missile defense will not fade as a priority of the administration. These incidents prove that there are people in the world for whom the concept of deterrence doesn't mean a thing," the official said.
"This was high-tech terrorism; these people had jet plane pilots. And if these same people had access to ballistic missiles, do you think they wouldn't have used them?" the official asked.
Bolton and Mamedov would also likely discuss potential Russian cooperation with U.S.-led retaliatory strikes following the attacks, according to the official.
In This Section
|