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Up to USA to get strategic arms deals ready for summit, Russia says
Interfax

Moscow, 27 February: Whether or not a legally binding document on cuts in strategic offensive weapons will have been drafted before the Russian-American summit set for May depends, in Russia's opinion, on the American side.

The Russian and American presidents "have given priority to the drafting of a new Russian-American agreement on radical cuts in strategic offensive weapons by the arrival of US President George W. Bush in Russia", Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Aleksandr Yakovenko told the press on Wednesday [27 February].

"However, a great deal currently depends on the US negotiators' preparedness to implement the presidential agreement on real and radical cuts in strategic offensive weapons under appropriate control," Yakovenko said.

Earlier, US Under Secretary of State John Bolton, the leader of a US delegation to the second round of talks on strategic issues, held recently in Moscow, made it understood that Russia and the USA may fail to reach an agreement on cuts in strategic offensive weapons by the May summit. But neither of the parties is confronted with insurmountable obstacles, the US diplomat said.

During the Moscow round of the talks, the parties made proposals on the documents expected to be signed at the May summit, after which they "got down to practical work on the drafts", Yakovenko continued...

In addition, the parties are actively working on a second extremely important document - a declaration on the formation of new strategic relations between Russia and the USA, which will outline the main spheres and trends of political, economic and military-political cooperation, including in creating a mechanism for building a Group of 20 comprised of Russia and the NATO member-states, Yakovenko said.

However, "serious disagreements still remain", he went on to say.

The main thing now is to come to terms on real, not "virtual" cuts and limitations of strategic armaments that would be guaranteed by proper control measures and, on the whole, enhance predictability and strengthen strategic stability and international security, said Yakovenko.

Moscow is convinced that the future agreement on strategic offensive weapons should also reflect "mutual dependence of strategic offensive and defence weapons, on which the Russian and American presidents agreed in Genoa on 22 July 2001", the Russian diplomat said.

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