A group of Russian military experts headed by Colonel General Yury Baluyevsky, first deputy head of the Russian General Staff, will fly to Washington on Monday for Russian-US consultations on armament reduction.
The central issue of the Washington consultations will be the development of a new agreement between Russia and the US on the reduction of strategic offensive arms, Baluyevsky told the press in Moscow on Saturday.
A legally binding document should be signed to clearly outline the controlling mechanism of the reduction process, said the general, noting the agreement could be ready at the Moscow visit by US President George Bush, which is tentatively scheduled for summer 2002.
Bush announced in his November meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that the US would cut its nuclear arsenal by two- thirds, from 6,000 warheads now to between 1,700 and 2,200. And Putin vowed to offer corresponding reduction.
"We will continue the consultations in Washington based on the announced reduction," Baluyevsky said, "and we are satisfied with the reduction parameters announced by the US"
He said the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) issues would also be discussed during the upcoming Russian-US consultations. "We still think the US is making a mistake" by withdrawing from the ABM treaty, he said.
The next armament reduction consultations will take place in Washington later this month. The Russian delegation, headed by the First Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Mamedov, will leave for Washington on January 28.
(China Daily January 14, 2002)
