The Russians have made clear that their response to a powerful U.S. defensive system would be to halt arms control and increase the numbers of their offensive nuclear weapons. Such reductions are possible only through careful negotiation. Next week, President Clinton will go to Moscow. This is an historic meeting. Nuclear unilateralism will hinder, rather than help, arms control.
Strategic stability can never be a one-way street.
It either exists for both the United States and Russia - or neither. Reductions alone do not guarantee stability - it is how reductions are made and how they interact with defensive systems that makes the difference. That is why arms control and strategic modernization have to be built upon planned and negotiated agreements. We have gained full cooperation from our European allies. But Russia represents a special concern-because there is a gap between the stated policy of its government to stop proliferation, and what occurs in practice.