Speed Key in Arms Talks, Rice Says

After meeting with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin in Moscow on Thursday, U.S. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice briskly spelled out some of the elements of the new strategic relationship that the Bush administration wants with Russia.

Under those ties, long, tortuous negotiations as to the number of nuclear weapons on each side would be a thing of the past.

The 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty, still seen by Russia as the key to global security, would be replaced, and talks on a new security arrangement would be swift and efficient so that America could rapidly push ahead with testing a new missile shield unhampered.

The ABM treaty bans deployment of a missile shield.

Rice said the two sides have agreed to a schedule of intensive talks in coming months. But she indicated that, although America was willing to consult, it would not wait for a nod from Russia to test and deploy a missile shield.

“The ABM treaty is very restrictive. We do not want to be constantly accused of violating the ABM treaty,” she told a news conference at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.

Although Russian officials suggested that the talks on a new security framework between the former Cold War foes would have to be long and complex, Rice ruled out a drawn-out process.

She said the U.S. was not willing to renegotiate the ABM treaty line by line, nor was it prepared to get involved in “the kind of tortured arms control talks” that occurred in the past about the numbers of strategic weapons.

These were products of an era when the U.S. and the then-Soviet Union were implacable enemies, Rice said.

Her comments underscored the gulf that must be bridged by the U.S. and Russia if there is to be an agreement between their two presidents before U.S. missile tests begin to encroach on the treaty. By some analyses, that point could be reached within months.

“It only points to the fact that we do need to move ahead and move ahead rapidly because our robust testing and evaluation program is going to move ahead,” Rice said.

“The fact is, the treaty is so restrictive that anything you do that isn’t ground-based that you use in an ABM mode, so to speak, is a violation of the treaty,” she said.

Despite the gap between the sides, she said, “we’ve come some way. There is recognition that the U.S. intends to move forward with missile defense.”

Russian officials, however, on Thursday reiterated their view that the treaty remained a cornerstone of global security and that negotiations on a missile shield could not be hurried.

“The work requires a rather long time. Besides, if some positive decisions are made on both sides, there will be some legislative work ahead of us too. And of course, all this will take a certain amount of time,” said Vladimir B. Rushailo, secretary of the Russian Security Council.

Georgy Mamedov, the Russian deputy foreign minister, emphasized the importance of the ABM treaty.

“I would like to recall the words said by Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin upon his return from [the Group of 8 summit in the Italian port of] Genoa--that we still consider the ABM treaty one of the important elements of strategic stability,” Mamedov said.

Rice, on the other hand, was vague about what sort of agreement would replace the ABM treaty.

“I suspect there will be something written between the two sides, but I think we’re open as to what form that might take,” she said.

Mamedov said Russia reiterated its proposal to cut the number of strategic weapons on each side to 1,500. Rice, however, said this issue was barely discussed.

Russia is eager to cut back strategic weapons because it cannot afford to maintain its existing 6,000 nuclear warheads.

Rice said the U.S. was trying to avoid discussing at what date its testing of a missile shield might violate the treaty.

“We think that’s the wrong approach. We think the approach is to say to the Russians that we intend to embark on a robust testing and evaluation program, we need to do that to catch up now and be able to counter the threats that we are facing,” she said.

She added that there were conflicting legal interpretations of what constituted a breach.

The national security advisor also said the U.S. would intensify talks with China to reassure Beijing that a missile shield would not threaten its interests.

The U.S. argues that any missile shield would be aimed not at Russia or China but at what it calls rogue states: North Korea, Iraq and Iran.

The same day Rice met Putin in Moscow, the head of one of those states, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, clattered across the border into Russia in an armored train for talks in early August with Putin. Kim, said to be afraid of flying, plans to cross the vast Russian continent on the Trans-Siberian Railway for the Moscow meetings.

So secretive was the visit that a day before his arrival early Thursday in Russia’s Far East, the North Korean Embassy in Moscow, the Russian Foreign Ministry and Putin’s press office all said they had no information about the trip.

In Moscow, Rice said she saw no significance in Kim’s visit.

“I don’t attach any importance to it. We know that the Russians have conversations from time to time with the North Koreans,” she said.

Rice said it would be a chance for Russia to pressure North Korea on the issue of nuclear proliferation.

“After all, the ballistic missiles that the North Koreans are spreading around the world could very easily fall into the hands of states and actors that might threaten the Russian Federation,” she said.