Russian leaders have nothing to fear from a US national missile defense and are "off the mark" in calling it a threat to arms control, US Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday.
In his first interview since taking office two weeks ago, Rumsfeld told reporters traveling with him from Washington that the anti-missile system envisioned by the Bush administration will be too limited in scope to threaten the deterrent value of Russia's large arsenal of strategic nuclear weapons.
"They know and we know and you know that the systems that are being discussed are not in any way relevant to the Russians'" nuclear force, which totals about 6,000 warheads and is shrinking, Rumsfeld said.
The secretary flew to Munich to attend an annual gathering of European defense officials and specialists where consternation about US missile defenses -- not only in Moscow but also in European capitals -- was expected to be a major topic of discussion.
Rumsfeld also scheduled private meetings with several of his NATO counterparts, including the defense ministers of Britain, Germany and Italy.
It was the first trip abroad for Rumsfeld in his second stint as defense secretary.
He served in the position for the final 14 months of the administration of former President Gerald Ford a quarter-century ago and he also is a former ambassador to NATO.
Rumsfeld said he has just begun assessing the state of the current US national missile defense program and did not plan to discuss in his Munich meetings any specifics on how President George W. Bush will proceed.
Then-president Bill Clinton determined late last summer that the technology of missile defense was not sufficiently mature, and the diplomatic obstacles too serious, to commit to an early deployment.
Russia has steadfastly maintained that the US project is a threat to international stability because it violates the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which prohibits anti-missile systems that defend an entire nation. Russia also has said that if the US were to withdraw from the ABM treaty, Moscow would feel compelled to abandon agreements that limit numbers of long-range nuclear weapons.
In Geneva on Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov told the 66-nation Conference on Disarmament that it was "illusory" for the US to think it could, by itself, create "isolated islets of well-being and stability in today's world" by erecting a missile shield over its own territory.
Rumsfeld stressed to reporters his view that Russia cannot make a serious case that a US national missile defense will threaten it or any other nuclear power.
Prefacing his comments by saying he was trying to "be diplomatic, now that I'm back in government," Rumsfeld said "it's off the mark to suggest" that missile defenses threaten Russia.
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