The agenda for tomorrow's meeting includes missile defense, NATO expansion, the Middle East, Iraq, the Balkans and other issues, in no particular order, Ivanov said. But it is missile defense that is likely to be the hottest question. Russia opposes U.S. plans to develop a national missile defense system, and this week presented NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson with an outline for a non-strategic missile defense proposal for Europe to counter the American initiative. Ivanov repeated the standing Russian argument that a U.S. missile defense program would violate the 1972 ABM treaty and destroy global strategic stability. Ivanov proposed holding multilateral talks to assess the threats that have prompted the United States to consider developing its own missile shield.
Historical experience shows that.
We propose finding joint paths. He also proposed holding talks on developing a global system of control of rockets and rocket technology. Joint action is strongly emphasized in the Russian proposals. One of the NATO officials getting their first close look at Russia's missile defense proposals said yesterday they were broad but enough to start serious discussions. What cheers up top officials at NATO is that they believe Moscow now acknowledges that a missile threat exists and that they can begin to talk about how to meet that threat.