U.S. reacts cautiously to Russia missile statement

By Major Garrett
CNN Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush White House reacted cautiously Friday to comments from a senior Russian military official suggesting that testing of a ballistic missile defense system in Alaska would not violate the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty.

Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky, first deputy chief of the Russian General Staff, said Thursday that "under the treaty, testing can be carried out, but only with notification."

The Bush administration has made clear it intends to create a testing facility in Alaska -- possibly as early as this year -- to research land-based interceptors and other components of a missile defense system.

"Automatically, it would not mean a violation of the treaty," Baluyevsky said of the proposed Alaska test facility. Baluyevsky led a 10-member Russian delegation that held talks this week on security issues and missile defense with Pentagon officials, part of a continuing dialogue between Russian and U.S. military leaders and planners.

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White House officials took careful note of the general's remarks but were hesitant to describe them as a breakthrough.

"There was a good exchange during the talks," said National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack. "Overall, we were pleased. But there is a lot of difference to the meaning of words. What does he mean by 'testing'? What does he mean by 'notification'? There is a long way to go before we come to what we would consider a new strategic framework."

President Bush has sought a new relationship with Russian President Vladmir Putin that he has said would set aside Cold War defense theories and devotion to the ABM treaty.

Bush has described the treaty as a relic of the Cold War and virtually irrelevant in a world where the United States and Russia are no longer enemies, and where both nations and much of Europe may soon face the threat of ballistic missiles launched by so-called rogue nations.

Bush has also warned of "diplomatic blackmail" perpetrated by a nation or group of terrorists that threaten to launch a ballistic missile with a nuclear warhead or a warhead filled with biological or chemical agents.

McCormack said the Bush-Putin dialogue has been generally positive and placed Baluyevsky's comments in that context.

"We're a long way from where we were seven months ago," McCormack said. "We're making real progress."

McCormack said high-level talks will continue with Russia on the ballistic missile defense and other issues when Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld arrives in Moscow on Saturday. Rumsfeld will be there for what a senior Defense Department official described as an "intense day" of meetings on Monday with Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Ivanov.

As for the Russian-U.S. talks at the Pentagon, the senior Defense Department official said: "We conducted them in a spirit of consultation, cooperation, transparency. The idea is to build a new relationship between the United States and Russia, a relationship that will be entirely different from the relationship that existed between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. And it's a relationship that will require us to be moving beyond some of the institutions of the Cold War, such as the ABM Treaty."

The Rumsfeld talks follow a July visit to Moscow and Kiev by National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to discuss missile defense and other security issues.

But security issues are by no means the only ones the United States and Russia are tackling at the highest levels. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and Commerce Secretary Don Evans also traveled to Moscow in July to discuss increasing U.S. investment in Russia, free trade and reforming Russia's legal system and tax structure to attract Western investment capital.

"We're trying to redefine a relationship with a very important state in the world," McCormack said. "It's about more than defense issues. It's multi-faceted. This is a significant and fundamental shift in a relationship with a nation that a decade ago was an entrenched enemy."