U.S. Says Arms Reduction Complicated

[ChrisD(RJ)]

U.S. Says Arms Reduction Complicated
April 30, 2002
By JUDITH INGRAM

MOSCOW (AP) - The U.S. ambassador said Tuesday both the U.S. and Russian 
leaders want a new nuclear arms reduction agreement finished and ready for 
signing at their May summit, but ``complex'' issues still stand in the way.
 
``Both presidents have made very clear to their ministers and their 
bureaucracies that they want this agreement finished,'' Ambassador Alexander

Vershbow said at a Moscow news conference.
 
``As a senior chinovnik (bureaucrat), I understand my marching orders,'' he 
said.
 
Bush has said he is prepared to reduce the U.S. nuclear arsenal to 1,700 to 
2,200 warheads from the current 6,000 each country is allowed under the
START 
I treaty. Putin has said Moscow would be willing to reduce to 1,500
warheads.
 
Vershbow said negotiators had made ``tremendous progress'' in formulating
new 
ways of monitoring and verifying weapons cuts. The main difference remaining

is ``how to implement the reduction,'' Vershbow said, alluding to Russia's 
objection to the Pentagon's plan to store warheads taken out of active 
service rather than to destroy them.
 
Gary Samore, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic 
Studies in London, said the issue had never entered into U.S.-Russian 
strategic arms talks before.
 
``The Russian argument is that we didn't need to deal with it before because

we still had so many weapons left that a couple of thousand in reserve
didn't 
make much of a difference,'' Samore said.
 
``Now, as the two sides are getting down to smaller levels and as the United

States is proceeding with missile defense, it becomes more important that
one 
side or the other not have a breakout capability and not be able to suddenly

move ahead and deploy 4,000 extra warheads.''
 
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Russian Defense Minister
Sergei 
Ivanov discussed the arms cuts in Moscow on Monday, and Russian Foreign 
Minister Igor Ivanov will travel to Washington later this week for what 
officials have called potentially decisive talks with Secretary of State 
Colin Powell and President Bush.
 
On another advance that had been expected by the summit, however, the
lifting 
of the Jackson-Vanik amendment may not occur, Vershbow said. The Cold
War-era 
legislation ties Moscow's trade privileges to its policies on Jewish 
emigration - which is no longer an issue - and its trading practices, which 
are.
 
Vershbow said that Russia's monthlong ban on U.S. poultry imports earlier 
this year and its sluggish resumption of import licensing had hurt Moscow's 
chances to have Jackson-Vanik put to rest. Moscow said the ban was prompted 
by health concerns, while Washington said the motivation was protectionism.
 
``The issue that is connected with Jackson-Vanik is normal trade relations, 
and unfortunately the conduct of the Russian side in the whole dispute has 
raised serious concerns in both houses of Congress,'' Vershbow said.