- Moscow (AFP) - The imminent US withdrawal from the 1972
Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty will redraw the global security map by freeing
various countries to launch a nuclear arms race, Russia's top military
chief said today.
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- "The Americans' pull-out will alter the nature of
the international strategic balance in freeing the hands of a series of
countries to restart an arms build-up," said General Anatoly Kvashnin,
chief of the Russian general staff.
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- "At military level, (the US decision) does not pose
a problem for Russia. But before you destroy it's better to create something"
in its place," he told reporters.
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- President George W Bush told top US lawmakers yesterday
that he would soon notify Russia that he planned to pull out of the ABM
treaty in order to forge ahead with the missile shield fiercely opposed
by Moscow, which sees the treaty as a "cornerstone" of global
security.
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- The ABM treaty, signed by late presidents Richard Nixon
and Leonid Brezhnev, bars the United States and Russia from unilaterally
developing missile defence shields under the premise that the threat of
"mutually assured destruction" will prevent nuclear war.
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- However, the United States argues that the treaty is
outdated and no longer takes into account post-Cold War considerations
like the threat of a limited missile attack from "rogue states"
such as North Korea and Iran .
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- Moscow would prefer to negotiate amendments to the ABM
treaty rather than abandon it altogether, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail
Kasyanov said during a visit to Brazil yesterday, describing the likely
US move as "cause of annoyance.
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