Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=07/16/01

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-278304

TITLE=U-S/CHINA/RUSSIA (L)

BYLINE=DAVID GOLLUST

DATELINE=STATE DEPARTMENT

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The Bush administration says it is not troubled by the signing in Moscow of a Russian-Chinese friendship treaty. It also says it still hopes to cooperate with Moscow on missile-defense. V-O-A's David Gollust reports from the State Department.

TEXT: The treaty signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart, Jiang Zemin, was described in some press accounts as a reflection of joint opposition to U-S supremacy in world affairs.

But at the State Department, spokesman Richard Boucher said the administration was aware for some time that the treaty was pending, and sees nothing threatening about it.

/// BOUCHER ACTUALITY ///

We've never felt that this was a zero-sum game. We've felt that it's important for us to have good relations with Russia and with China, and we've always felt it's important for them to have good relations with each other. They have a long border in a key region, and it's important for them to get along. So, we don't see it as any particular threat to us, or our plans.

/// END ACT ///

As to criticism from the Moscow summit of administration missile-defense efforts, Mr. Boucher said Saturday's successful test of a U-S missile interceptor was "well within the confines" of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty between the United States and the former Soviet Union.

He said the United States has "no particular goal" of breaking the treaty, described by the Russian and Chinese leaders as the "cornerstone" of global stability.

But neither, he said, will the United States be constrained by its (the treaty's) limits in pursuing an effective missile defense capability. And, he said, the administration hopes the attendant problems can be worked out in cooperation with Moscow.

On a related issue, Mr. Boucher signaled that the White House does not intend to make wholesale changes in long-running programs aimed at helping Moscow dispose of Soviet-era arms stockpiles and control weapons proliferation.

An administration review of the disarmament efforts, including the well-known "Nunn-Lugar" Cooperative Threat-Reduction program, is nearing an end. The State Department spokesman would not discuss the conclusions, but said the underlying concept remains sound.

/// BOUCHER ACTUALITY ///

Let me say, in general terms, that we continue to believe that it's in U-S national interests to assist Russia in preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction, the material and the know-how for weapons of mass destruction, as well as ballistic-missile technology. So that point remains pretty firm.

/// END ACT ///

The United States has spent several billion dollars over the last decade helping former Soviet republics Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus dispose of nuclear weapons inherited from the Soviet Union, and assisting Moscow in dismantling weapons and protecting stockpiles.

The New York Times reported Monday the administration review panel has decided that most of the programs are vital for U-S security and should continue.

But it also said the panel is recommending that others including a controversial effort to find alternate jobs for former Soviet weapons scientists be re-structured or eliminated altogether. (Signed)

NEB/DAG/TDW