Secretary of Defense Cohen Sept. 22 Tokyo Press Conference
Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen
Press Conference
U.S. Embassy, Tokyo
September 22, 2000
(as delivered)
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, I have two questions if possible. The first
one concerns theater missile defense. China and Russia are still
highly critical and they are suggesting that American plans are going
to destroy the whole system of stability. So, my question is, what
your plans are, are you going to make it a closed system for only the
United States and Japan and possibly Taiwan to participate, or maybe
you are going to make it an open system and there is a possibility for
such countries as China and Russia to participate, too. And my second
question is about Russian nuclear submarine Kursk which capsized last
month. Russians are suggesting that one of the possible reasons is a
collision with a NATO or American submarine, they are asking to let
them, well, have a look at a couple of United States submarines and
the answer from the American side is no; so I ask, why not? And what
is your own explanation of that particular accident. Thank you.
SECDEF: With respect to national missile defense, as you know,
President Clinton has decided to defer a decision on deployment of
that system, on a system, until the next administration. I have had
conversations with President Putin and other leaders in Russia to
explain that this system as contemplated by the United States is in
response to the continued proliferation of missile technology,
particularly in the hands of those states formerly known as rogue
states, now known as states of concern. But their possession does in
fact pose a threat to the security of the United States and the
question then becomes, can a system be designed and constructed that
would require some modification of the ABM treaty, but would be
limited in nature and provide the kind of limited protection that the
United States feels is needed.
President Clinton had met with President Putin, and President Putin
said two things. Number one, he agreed that there was an emerging
threat. Number two, he said, why don't we see if there can be a
NATO-Russian participation on theater missile defenses, and number
two, why don't we explore the possibility of a joint research and
development project on something called a boost phase intercept
system. We are open to exploring a boost-phase intercept system; in
fact we sent a team of experts to Moscow to meet with the Russian
experts. And what we found was there was very little interest on the
part of the Russian experts to discuss any concept or plan for a
boost-phase intercept system. So at this point, we would like to work
with the Russians but we have nothing that they have produced to date
that we would find, be the basis for, a boost-phase intercept system.
With respect to the Kursk, we had made it very clear that the United
States, that our ships had no role in that terrible tragedy. We have
communicated that, we believe that our word, indeed, has been
categorical. I have received every assurance and I know that all our
ships are operational and could not possibly have been involved in any
kind of contact with the Russian submarine. So frankly, there is no
need for inspections, since ours are completely operational, there was
no contact whatsoever with the Kursk.
I hope that the Russian authorities find out the cause of it. All I
can do is speculate at this point, that there were internal blasts
that led to the loss of that ship and the fine men aboard her.
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