VLADIVOSTOK – Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin said yesterday US plans for a missile defence system were the main obstacle to reaching a new deal on reducing cold war arsenals of nuclear weapons.
The two largest nuclear powers say they are close to agreeing on a successor to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start I), although US president Barack Obama and Russian president Dmitry Medvedev have yet to clinch a deal.
Asked by a reporter what the biggest problem was in the talks, Mr Putin said: “What is the problem? The problem is that our American partners are building an anti-missile shield and we are not building one.”
Speaking in the Far Eastern Russian city of Vladivostok, Mr Putin said the US plans would fundamentally disrupt the cold war balance of power and Russia would be forced to develop new offensive weapons. His comments showed the seriousness of the problems hampering talks on a replacement for Start I and illustrated the deep unease felt in Moscow over Washington’s missile defence plans.
In September Mr Obama said the US would scrap parts of George W Bush’s missile defence plans, a step seen as an attempt to allay Kremlin fears that the system was a direct threat to Russia.
Cutting the nuclear weapons accumulated during the cold war is the centrepiece of Mr Obama’s efforts to “reset” relations with Russia, which the US is pressing to offer more help on Afghanistan and Iran.
Russia’s leaders have remained wary about Mr Obama’s revised missile defence plans.
“If we are not developing an anti-missile shield, then there is a danger that our partners, by creating such ‘an umbrella’, will feel completely secure and thus can allow themselves to do what they want, disrupting the balance, and aggressiveness will rise immediately,” Mr Putin said.
“In order to preserve balance . . . we need to develop offensive weapons systems,” he added, echoing a pledge by Mr Medvedev last week to develop a new generation of strategic nuclear weapons. – (Reuters)
