IVANOV STANDS FOR REDUCTION OF STRATEGIC OFFENSIVE WEAPONS AND AGAINST DEPLOYMENT OF MISSILE DEFENSE SYSTEMS IN EASTERN EUROPE
NEW YORK, January 14 (RIA Novosti) - Strategic stability in the modern world is closely related to the reduction of strategic offensive weapons, announced Russian defense minister Sergei Ivanov speaking at the meeting of non-governmental Council on international relations in New York. "Russia strictly and fully meets its obligations according to the Treaty on the reduction of strategic offensive potentials and the Treaty on further reduction and limitation of strategic offensive weapons," the Russian minister stressed. He noted that the United States did not show the same attitude, and the work of a bilateral committee created under provisions of the SOR treaty might have been more fruitful if the sides could have worked out a more effective mechanism of control over the implementation of the treaty. "Naturally, Russia continues to update its strategic deterrent potential. However, our efforts are limited to its modernization and perfection. We have never desired to increase the quantity of strategic weapons," Mr. Ivanov emphasized. He said that test launches were conducted in the framework of the existing treaties with application of all necessary mechanisms of control. Mr. Ivanov also noted that Russian and American experts continued to cooperate on the issue of missile defense. He underlined that the U.S. decision to deploy missile defense systems in Eastern Europe might affect negatively the entire system of European security. "We are concerned about alleged deployment of U.S. silo-based anti-missile systems in Eastern Europe," the minister stated. He said that the choice of location for the deployment of such systems considering the protection of the US territory against incoming missiles is rather questionable. "If the United States finally decides to deploy such complexes, it might seriously undermine the work conducted in the framework of the Russia-NATO Council on theater missile defense, and have a negative effect on the entire system of European security, the minister stressed. http://en.rian.ru/rian/index.cfm?prd_id=160&msg_id=5307802&startrow=1&date=2 005-01-14&do_alert=0 Serbian News Network - SNN news@antic.org http://www.antic.org/
