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US President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin make a point before the start of a meeting between Russian and American delegations at the end of the G8 Summit in Genoa.
Photo:REUTERS |
Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President George W. Bush have agreed talks on a new strategic arms relationship that would link discussions of offensive nuclear weapons cuts and defensive systems.
"We agreed that major changes in the world require concrete discussions of both offensive and defensive systems...We already have some strong and tangible points of agreement. We will shortly begin intensive consultations on the interrelated subjects of offensive and defensive systems,"they said in a joint statement."
The statement was issued after the second meeting by the two leaders in a little over a month, at the end of a Group of Eight big-power summit in Genoa, Italy.
The agreement indicated Bush had moved toward Putin's aim of negotiating mutual reductions in offensive weapons while Putin had not shut the door to Bush's goal of deploying a missile defence system.
Bush wants to build an ambitious defensive system - dubbed by critics son of Star Wars - that could shoot down incoming missiles and guard against possible nuclear attack from rogue states such as North Korea or Iraq.
Russia fears such moves could upset the strategic balance and trigger a new arms race.
The system would require abandoning the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty that forms the cornerstone of U.S.-Russian strategic relations and is based on the principle of ensuring each side can destroy the other.
Both leaders said at a joint news conference at Genoa's Doria Spinola palace that they were optimistic on reaching a broad accord on a new strategic arms relationship.
Putin had earlier proposed mutual cuts in offensive weapons stockpiles to around 1,500 missiles each. Bush had proposed unilateral cuts, but the United States had said there was no need for detailed arms talks along the lines of Cold War arms agreements.
Putin said an agreement on a new strategic relationship could mean Russia would never have to increase its deployment of nuclear warheads, as he had threatened to do if the United States unilaterally abandoned the 1972 ABM treaty.
Bush said a warm relationship, begun when the two leaders met for the first time in Slovenia in June, had continued during Sunday's meeting.
US and Russian officials would continue to work on a specific timetable for the arms talks, which would be held by the defence and foreign ministers of each country, Bush said.
US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice told reporters later that it was Putin's idea to announce an agreement on linking talks on the two types of weapons.
Rice said that in the talks, Bush also raised U.S. objections to Russia's blocking of a revision of United Nations sanctions on Iraq.