US sends missile policy to Russia
Updated: 2007-11-22 14:58
-Allowing Russian experts to make regular inspections of the US site in Poland. US officials have emphasized that the offer is contingent on approval from Poland.
-Delaying the activation of the US missile interceptors until it is clear that Iran can reach Europe with ballistic missiles.
Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed in June to share a Russian-leased early warning radar in the ex-Soviet Azerbaijan with the United States. While the offer was intended as a way of jointly monitoring the threat from Iran, the US is pressing to integrate the radar and others into a joint missile defense system.
Russian officials have reacted positively to the proposal of delaying activation of the interceptors. But Russian negotiators insist that the offer include a binding treaty that would detail specific terms for activation, said a Russian official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment. The United States would likely object to such a demand.
Neither the US nor the Russian official would provide details of the arms control treaty proposal.
The 1990 treaty limits the deployment of tanks, aircraft and heavy conventional weapons across Europe. Negotiators agreed to revise the treaty in 1999, but the United States and other NATO members have not ratified it.
The United States says Moscow first must fulfill obligations to withdraw forces from Georgia and from Moldova's separatist Trans-Dniester region. The Kremlin has said there should be no link.
Russia says the old version has lost relevance because former Soviet satellites have joined NATO. But Putin says the decision to withdraw from the treaty was also in response to the US missile defense plan.
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