Kazakh Leader Foresees Stationing Russian Missiles

The president of Kazakhstan said Wednesday that Russia might deploy new long-range nuclear missiles in his republic in the future, even though he has agreed to eliminate the weapons during the next seven years.

But U.S. officials said they were confident that Russia has no interest in stationing any missiles outside its borders, and they predicted that the details of an agreement with all four nuclear-equipped republics of the former Soviet Union can be wrapped up this weekend.

The deal would remove an estimated 350 long-range missiles and 70 long-range bombers--with a total of more than 3,000 nuclear warheads--from Kazakhstan, Belarus and Ukraine, thus eliminating the danger of creating three nuclear powers in addition to Russia.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, whose remote Central Asian republic is home to two Soviet missile bases and one strategic bomber air base, promised President Bush on Tuesday that he would eliminate all nuclear weapons from Kazakhstan during the seven-year term of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. That pact, signed last year by Bush and then-Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, must still be ratified by the U.S. Senate and by Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Belarus.

Speaking with reporters at the end of his Washington visit, Nazarbayev said Kazakhstan retains the right to invite Russia to station missiles after that seven-year period--despite U.S. objections.

Whether nuclear weapons will be deployed in the territory of any of the Commonwealth of Independent States “will be determined by the situation that exists at that time,” he said.

He added that the issue is no longer a bone of contention with the Bush Administration. “The United States and Kazakhstan have overcome this problem,” he said.

One U.S. official said Nazarbayev had privately assured the United States that he does not intend to seek any new missiles in the future. But the Kazakh president did not offer that assurance publicly when reporters repeatedly asked him to clarify his position.

Nazarbayev, who initially resisted giving up the nuclear weapons, apparently wants to keep some Russian missiles on his territory both to help protect his republic against neighboring China and to maintain his own place at the nuclear bargaining table.

U.S. officials said they are still negotiating the details of the five-way deal and that some minor sticking points remain with Russia.

Secretary of State James A. Baker III plans to meet with the foreign ministers of most of the former Soviet republics, mostly to talk about economic aid, in the Portuguese capital on Saturday.