U.S., Russia Sign New Arms Control Pacts

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny M. Primakov on Friday signed arms control agreements aimed at reducing nuclear danger and strengthening each nation’s security.

In another step illustrating the new era of international relations, Primakov joined members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization for the first meeting of a new group established to ease Moscow’s fears about the impact of NATO expansion. Albright said the joint council is intended to show that NATO, formed at the height of the Cold War, now poses no threat to Russia.

The arms control agreements signed after the meeting included a memorandum of understanding that clears the way for the United States to develop defenses against short-range ballistic missiles without violating the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

The original purpose of the ABM treaty was to prevent either of the nuclear superpowers from developing a defense so good that a country could afford to launch a first-strike nuclear attack without fear of retaliation. Albright said that treaty was “central to strategic stability” throughout the Cold War.

But since the ABM treaty was signed, scientists have devised defense systems against shorter-range missiles of the sort used on battlefields. The agreement signed Friday will allow both countries to proceed with developing defense systems for these missiles.

Also, the two countries extended the time period for concluding sharp cutbacks in U.S. and Russian stockpiles of long-range nuclear missiles under the START II treaty. Under the accord, the deadline will be pushed from the beginning of the year 2003 until the end of 2007. The idea is to ease Russia’s concerns over the cost of dismantling its weapons.

The START II treaty, signed in 1993, calls for slashing U.S.-Russian long-range nuclear arsenals by up to two-thirds.

President Clinton and Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin agreed in principle on the arms control measures during their summit in Helsinki, Finland, last March. But it took negotiators six months to fill in the details and allow the pacts to be signed.

The most controversial of the measures modifies the 1972 anti-ballistic missile treaty to permit the development of systems to defend against short-range missiles, such as the Russian Scud. U.S. officials said that all systems currently on Washington’s drawing board would be permitted under the accord.

The NATO-Russia council was created last May as something of a consolation prize for Moscow after its failure to block NATO from expanding to include three of the former Soviet Union’s Cold War allies--Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.

Addressing the first meeting of the organization, formally known as the NATO-Russia Permanent Joint Council, Albright said: “My only slightly tongue-in-cheek hope is that Russia will come to be bored with NATO. In other words, I hope and expect that Russia will come to know the real NATO for what it is, as neither a threat to Russia nor as the answer to Russia’s most pressing dilemmas.”

Primakov replied that while Russia likes the council, it remains cool toward NATO expansion.

“Today too Russia continues to be negatively disposed to NATO enlargement,” he said. “This council, however, is called to keep the world from returning to confrontation and to make a major step toward the future.”

A senior State Department official said he was encouraged by Primakov’s use of the word “today.” The official said Russian objections to NATO expansion are well known, but “it is interesting that in a carefully prepared text Russia inserted the word today,” possibly implying that the position might change in the future.

Although participants said the meeting, held in a U.N. chamber, consisted primarily of Primakov and the 16 NATO foreign ministers reading brief position papers to each other, the ministers appointed a task force of lower-ranking officials to prepare a detailed agenda of peacekeeping, civil emergency planning, scientific and environmental programs and other areas of potential cooperation.

No decisions on any of those subjects were made Friday, but officials said that some action on joint programs may be approved when the foreign ministers next meet Dec. 17 in Brussels.

The senior State Department official said the council will make it easier for Russia and NATO to reassure each other that their military programs are not threatening. At the same time, he said, NATO will continue to keep military secrets.

“We will consult to the maximum, but considerations of military security will obviously limit the extent of that consultation,” the official said.