President Clinton's decision to visit Russia in early September in spite of Moscow's failure to ratify the START-2 arms limitation treaty shows the extent of US concern concerning relations between the two countries.
As recently as last May, both Mr Clinton and President Yeltsin had made Russian ratification of the treaty a condition of the summit, but it is now clear the Duma will not ratify it this summer as had been hoped. The US ratified it in 1996, thus clearing the way for reduction of both countries' strategic nuclear weapons to about 3,500 each.
A White House spokesman said that in spite of Russia's failure to ratify START-2, the two leaders need to discuss important issues such as the unrest in Kosovo and the state of the Russian economy. They will also prepare the way for a START-3 treaty aimed at further arms reductions when the present one comes into effect.
Mr Clinton is expected to point out that continued Russian failure to ratify START-2 will lead to pressure by the Republican-dominated US Congress to increase spending on anti-nuclear defences.
At the G8 summit in Birmingham in May the two leaders discussed a meeting in Moscow in July after the Duma ratified START-2. Soon afterwards, Mr Yeltsin's relations with the Russian parliament worsened over his insistence on appointing an inexperienced prime minister, Mr Sergei Kiriyenko.
The Duma also reacted unfavourably to the US ratification of the NATO enlargement treaty to include Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. But Washington and Moscow now fear that prolonged postponement of what are supposed to be annual US-Russia summits is damaging their relationship.
"This is a very important relationship to the United States when you think about the issues the two countries are working on together," the White House spokesman said.
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott yesterday said Mr Clinton had made "serious mistakes" during his recent trip to China.
He said Mr Clinton did not adequately address weapons proliferation, religious persecution and the trade imbalance between the US and China.