March 17, 2010
AFP

MOSCOW: Russia’s lower house of parliament will not ratify a future nuclear disarmament treaty with the United States unless it includes links to missile defence issues, its speaker said Tuesday.

“We will not ratify it if the questions of the link between strategic offensive weapons and missile defence are not examined,” Duma speaker Boris Gryzlov said at a meeting with his Bulgarian counterpart.

Gryzlov said that moves by the United States to install missile defence facilities in countries such as Bulgaria are of a “particularly sensitive character for Russia.” Some observers have said that a Russian insistence on a link with missile defence is the main problem holding up agreement on a successor to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) between the two countries.

Gryzlov is a top official from the ruling United Russia party of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and is known for rarely stepping away from the official line. His comment add a further complication in efforts to agree a new treaty just ahead of a visit by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton starting Thursday aimed at giving a new impulse to the negotiations.

Russia has already expressed grave concern after Romania said this month it would hold talks with Washington on hosting US missile interceptors and Bulgaria showed an interest in taking part in a US missile shield. US President Barack Obama and Russia’s Dmitry Medvedev had targeted a new agreement by the end of 2009 to drastically reduce nuclear stockpiles but negotiations have turned into a prolonged process. Signed in 1991, START led to huge reductions in the US and Russian nuclear arsenals and imposed verification measures to build trust between the two former Cold War foes.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\03\17\story_17-3-2010_pg4_8