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Putin Calls for Intl. Terror Fight
November 13, 2001
By BARRY SCHWEID
WASHINGTON (AP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin called for an international compact anchored at the United Nations to counter terrorism.
In a speech Tuesday night at the Russian Embassy, he said, ``No nation is secure from this threat.''
Putin, speaking in Russian, reaffirmed his government's support for the Bush administration's campaign against terrorists. ``We shall be friends and partners,'' he said, on this front as well as others.
``Terrible acts have been committed against human kind,'' he said of the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington. ``Our common enemy has no nationality, no religion, no civilization.''
He said that to counter terrorists worldwide, ``We need a union or alliance'' based at the United Nations and resting on a comprehensive agreement among the nations.
On the main topic of his summit talks with President Bush, Putin said Russia was prepared to cut its arsenal of nuclear weapons to one-third its current size, or less, matching Bush's offer. This would mean a ceiling of fewer than 2,000 strategic warheads.
But unlike Bush, who said earlier that he did not favor formal treaties, Putin said he preferred relying on them to codify weapons reductions.
Affirming his intention to move Russia closer to the West, Putin said his goal was ``an equal partnership'' with the NATO military alliance.
Russia's ties with NATO are limited now, and Putin, recognizing the issue was sensitive, said he wanted to go ``as far as the Atlantic Alliance is ready to go.''
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