U.S., Russia Renew Their Commitment to Cooperate

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and top Russian officials papered over their differences on missile defenses and other issues Tuesday, clearing the way for renewed pledges of international cooperation.

“I am very satisfied that we are on a good road,” Albright told a joint news conference with Russian Foreign Minister Igor S. Ivanov at the end of two days of talks.

While acknowledging that differences remain, she said U.S. and Russian officials have demonstrated “our ability to either solve something immediately or . . . set up a procedure that allows our experts to look at the issues and work through the various problems.”

On an emerging U.S. missile-defense plan that set Russian teeth on edge when it came to light last week, Albright and Ivanov chose the second course, referring the issue to a bilateral security committee. The U.S. side of the panel, to be led by Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, will visit Moscow late next month.

At their news conference, Albright and Ivanov said they had agreed that the United States will not violate the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty. But Albright made it clear that Washington reserves the right to seek amendments to the pact to permit a nationwide defensive system early in the next century. For his part, Ivanov said that Russia likes the treaty just as it is, prohibiting the plan now on Pentagon drawing boards.

The rough edges of the U.S.-Russian relationship showed clearly in a 25-minute telephone call between Albright and Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin, hospitalized with a bleeding ulcer. It was the first conversation of a U.S. official with the ailing leader since President Clinton visited Moscow in September.

According to his spokesman, Yeltsin “expressed concern” about the missile-defense issue and told Albright that U.S. military action in Iraq or Kosovo without specific authorization by the U.N. Security Council “is not permissible.”

Albright and Ivanov issued a joint statement on Kosovo demanding restraint by both the Yugoslav government and ethnic Albanian guerrillas in the separatist Serbian province. They joined in a call for punishment of the forces--assumed to be Serbian police--who massacred more than 40 ethnic Albanians in the village of Racak this month.

But there was no mention in the statement of possible North Atlantic Treaty Organization military action against the Yugoslav government. Ivanov made clear that Russia opposes the use of force. Albright said the United States and its allies are considering a range of responses, including bombing or putting peacekeeping troops on the ground.

In one tangible result of Albright’s visit, the United States, Russia and Kazakhstan signed an agreement assuring the security of U.S. communication satellites to be launched atop Russian rockets from a range in Kazakhstan. U.S. officials said the pact replaces an earlier system of launch-by-launch negotiations over security measures.

Russian rockets have already launched nine U.S. satellites under a program permitting 16 launches. Officials said the new agreement streamlines the procedure.

Highlighting continuing friction, Albright warned the Russians that the United States will not authorize launches beyond the original 16 unless Moscow stops Russian enterprises from doing business with Iran’s illicit missile program.

U.S. officials said Russia stands to earn hundreds of millions of dollars, perhaps even as much as $1 billion, from launches during the next decade provided it breaks off all contact with Iranian missile programs.

But that quid pro quo raised Russian hackles, suggesting as it does that the economically strapped government has little choice but to knuckle under to U.S. demands in order to obtain business and financial aid.

“We are building a market economy in our country,” Ivanov said tartly. “[That] does not mean we should have a market foreign policy. We do not trade in our national interests.”

And economist Grigory A. Yavlinsky, one of the most pro-Western figures on Russia’s growing list of potential presidential candidates, said after his meeting with Albright on Tuesday: “It is impossible to either punish us or buy us. That’s why all kinds of sanctions against our institutes and all kinds of grants have no prospects whatsoever. The only thing that has prospects is cooperation.”

Times staff writer Maura Reynolds contributed to this report.