Russia to oppose U.S. missile plan

Russia is to voice its concerns over U.S. missile plans to Fischer

MOSCOW, Russia -- Russia's leaders are preparing to voice opposition to U.S. plans for a national anti-missile defence system during talks with Germany.

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer arrives in Moscow on Monday to meet Russian heads and discuss the National Missile Defence (NMD) plan, intended to guard the U.S. against attacks from "rogue states" like North Korea and Iran.

Russia, backed by China, has led opposition to NMD and to what it sees as inevitable changes to the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty.

Moscow has discussed the system with other European officials, including French, German and Swedish defence ministers in recent weeks.

RESOURCES Q&A: National Missile Defence How the proposed missile system would work Text of the ABM Treaty

All have expressed doubts about NMD's benefits for Europe and whether it will work anyway.

The U.S. has said it will press ahead with the technology but has promised talks with nations wary of the plan.

To develop the system Washington would have to either rip up the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty -- which outlaws NMD -- or persuade Russia to accept alterations to the treaty.

"The new U.S. administration is measuring the response of both its allies and Russia to the plan," said Boris Makarenko, Deputy Director of Moscow's Centre for Political Technologies.

"It is clear that the U.S. administration will go ahead with this and both Europe and Russia will be obliged to deal with it."

Russia fears space arms race

Sergei Ivanov, influential secretary of Russia's Security Council, said last week NMD could generate a new arms race in space -- a claim U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell denies.

French President Jacques Chirac described the scheme as an "invitation to proliferation."

The UK's Chief of Defence Staff, General Sir Charles Guthrie, said talks he had had with U.S. officials left him convinced that the Bush administration would press ahead with the missile scheme despite European concerns.

But he doubted the wisdom of Britain buying itself a protective place under the umbrella.

"It's going to be an extremely expensive system for us to buy into and if we did buy into it, what would we give up?" he asked.

In a speech delivered in Rome last week, Guthrie urged Europeans to add more muscle to their defence effort or face losing U.S. support.

"As Europeans we have to share the burden with the Americans because if we don't do more, they will certainly do less, thereby weakening [NATO]."

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Russia issues missile defence warning
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Russia plans U.S. missile talks
December 30, 2000

Russian Defence Ministry (in Russian)
U.S. Department of Defense
Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty
German Defence Ministry

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