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U.S. And Russia Sign Nuclear Arms Reduction Treaty
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| Bush
and Putin (L) shake hands after signing the Nuclear Arms Treaty.
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MOSCOW,
May 24 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – The Russian and U.S.
presidents have signed a landmark Nuclear Arms Treaty, which slashes
the two countries' arsenals by two-thirds.
President
Vladimir Putin and President George W. Bush signed the deal in a
ceremony in the Kremlin.
The
agreement - the first major nuclear disarmament deal for almost 10
years - has been hailed by the Americans as banishing the legacy of
the Cold War.
Speaking
after the signing, President Bush said the treaty would
"liquidate the legacy of nuclear hostility between our two
countries," BBC’s online news service reported.
The
treaty aims to cut the nuclear arsenals of each side from current
levels of between 6,000 and 7,000 to between 1,700 and 2,200 over the
next 10 years.
Bush
said he was determined to get the U.S. Congress to lift the 1974
Jackson-Vanik agreement, which restrict normal trade relations with
Russia, BBC added.
President
Putin hailed a "completely new quality" in Russia's
relationship with the U.S.
The
three-day summit is the fifth between the heads of state of the two
once-bitter-foes-now-turned-partners, but their first meeting on
Russian soil.
Bush
arrived late Thursday, May 23, in the Russian capital amid high
security for the Kremlin summit.
Shortly
before arriving in Moscow, where hundreds of Russians staged a noisy
protest at the U.S. Embassy, Bush said the signing of the treaty would
rid Russia and the United States "of the last vestiges of Cold
War confrontation," according to CNN.
CNN
said Bush also warned Putin to stop providing weapons technology to
Iran. "If you arm Iran, you're liable to have the weapons pointed
at you," he claimed.
He
added he planned to tell Putin to handle Iran with caution, and to
express U.S. worries that Iran may someday be capable of arming
missiles. "That's going to be a problem for all of us, including
Russia," Bush said.
Russia
has been helping Iran build the Bushehr civilian nuclear power plant,
which on Thursday a Bush aide singled out from among many nuclear
power plants in the region – including in Israel, as allegedly the
“most important proliferation threat there is."
Iran
says the plant is for peaceful purposes, and Russia has rejected the
U.S. allegations as "groundless," said CNN.
On
Friday at the summit with Bush, Putin emphasized that Russia’s
nuclear cooperation with Iran does not harm efforts to prevent nuclear
weapons proliferation.
“Russia’s
cooperation with Iran does not harm the non-proliferation process,”
AFP quoted him as saying.
The
meeting between the two leaders is expected to see the clinch of a new
strategic partnership accord, effectively drawing a line under the
mutual suspicion and nuclear rivalry of the Cold War era.
However,
the two leaders still disagree on a number of issues. Moscow is eager
to secure Russia's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), and
to attract greater U.S. investment in its economy as well as
cooperation with the United States in exporting Caspian Sea oil,
Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.
Putin
is also expected to press the U.S. president for assurances that an
agreement 10 days ago to give Russia an unprecedented voice within
NATO is only the first step in Moscow's integration within the
Alliance.
At
the same time, Bush is likely to seek guarantees on the control of
Russian nuclear technology, which some Pentagon hawks fear could
allegedly slip into the hands of groups and countries the U.S.
describes as terrorist.
Putin
is looking for Bush to help Russia gain the status of a free-market
economy entitling it to U.S. trade benefits a decade after the fall of
the Soviet Union, AFP said.
"The
United States is a key partner for [Russian] investments and trade
agreements. The economy will be a key topic" at the summit, Putin
told a meeting of top entrepreneurs on the eve of the summit.
Discussion
of Russia's hoped-for market economy status would be "an
important item on the agenda," Putin added.
Moscow
was bracing itself for a likely disappointment that Bush would make no
promises of action to lift a Soviet-era amendment barring Washington
from delivering favorable U.S. trade tariffs to its Cold War-era foe.
Moves
in the U.S. Congress to "graduate" Russia from the
Jackson-Vanik amendment, a 1974 law penalizing Moscow for its
restrictions on the movement of Soviet Jews, have stalled amid a
bitter dispute over U.S. poultry exports.
The
U.S. Senate, while supporting granting Russia permanent normal trade
relations, said Thursday it would only lift the amendment
strengthening U.S.-Russia relations "at the appropriate
time," AFP reported.
Putin
lamented the decision, saying: "The Congress has postponed
examining the Jackson Vanik agreement. This is a strange
decision."
Meanwhile,
the Communists and their nationalist supporters attacked the
Russia-U.S. disarmament treaty as a humiliation for Moscow that would
leave Washington with a massive advantage in nuclear and other defense
potential.
Putin
is trying to turn Russia "into a U.S. satellite," said
Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, as 250 of his supporters
picketed the U.S. embassy compound, some holding signs that read
"The Destruction of Our Defense."
But
the Russian army took a friendlier approach, with the official defense
ministry newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda running a cozy interview with the
U.S. president under the headline: "George Bush: We are no longer
enemies."
"Russian
generals are being turned face-forward toward the West," observed
Izvestia daily in an article explaining that the Russian brass was now
being briefed about their new role in an era of cooperation with
Washington.
And
even firebrand nationalists like Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who only years
ago spoke of expanding the Russian empire from the Atlantic to the
Indian Ocean, said he was "very optimistic" about the Bush
summit.
"I
had criticized a policy of sucking up to Washington in the past, but
since September 11, they have themselves sought to cooperate with us.
Why should we push them away?"
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