Rumsfeld, Rice Say U.S. Will Cooperate with Others on Missile Defense

By Thomas Eichler
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington - The United States will consult with Russia, with China
and with its allies in planning its missile defense system, say U.S.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and National Security Advisor
Condoleezza Rice.

Rumsfeld, speaking May 6 on the CBS television program Face the
Nation, noted President Bush's May 1 speech on U.S. missile defense
plans, in which the president argued that the security situation has
changed with the end of the Cold War.

"Russia," said Rumsfeld, "is not an enemy. ... It's time to move into
the 21st century, it's time to look at numbers of nuclear weapons and
reduce them. Change is not easy and ... it's going to take a lot of
consultation, with Russia, with our allies and with China and others,
but it's worth doing because it's the right thing to do."

Rumsfeld said "I've just been looking at some of the reaction around
the world to President Bush's speech, and I've been very pleased. I
noticed what the Indians have said, the Australians have said, the
British have said, and even President Putin of Russia has been very,
very quiet and measured in his response."

Rumsfeld said the missile defense system envisioned would not end U.S.
vulnerability to attack from Russia, which could overpower the system
with the many missiles at its disposal. But a strategy of mutual
vulnerability "doesn't work with Saddam Hussein or with the North
Koreans or rogue countries or an accidental launch," he said. "This
system that's being designed isn't going to affect Russia at all.
There's no way in the world it would deal with the thousands of
weapons that they have. That isn't what it's designed for. It's
designed to deal with small numbers. Because at the end of the Cold
War we've seen this proliferation of technologies, and other countries
are getting weapons of mass destruction, and we can't remain
vulnerable to them."

National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, appearing on ABC's This
Week program, said that U.S. missile defense plans still are at an
early stage, with no one ready yet to suggest "an architecture" for
the system. "That's why this is a perfect time for consultations with
our friends and allies and with the Russians and with the Chinese
about how we move forward," she said.

Rice noted that the administration is sending high-level officials to
European and Asian countries the week of May 6 to explain the U.S.
position on missile defense. "The president has wanted to make very
clear," she said, "that this is not a program to give the United
States advantage. This is really a reshaping of the nuclear
environment. The world has changed. It's time to think differently
about nuclear weapons, and we want to have that discussion with all of
the world - all peace-loving countries that might benefit."

Rice said President Bush "believes that it's entirely possible to
think about this as a cooperative move with the Russians, who after
all are the other signatories to the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty. He
offered on last Tuesday the Russians a new way of thinking about
nuclear weapons, a cooperative framework to move forward. The
Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty belongs to another era, when we had an
implacably hostile relationship with the Soviet Union. ... The
president has made very clear that the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty
cannot stand in the way of what we need to do, but we did not say on
Tuesday that we were walking out of the treaty. Rather, he said that
he'd like to move forward in a cooperative way toward a new world.
That's what these discussions are about. I was, by the way, very
impressed, and indeed heartened, by Vladimir Putin's words welcoming a
constructive dialogue with the United States."

On other subjects:

-- Rice on loss by the United States of a seat on the United Nations
Commission on Human Rights: "I think it's a very sad day when the
United States, which is after all the bastion for so many people who
have been fleeing tyranny for 200 years, gets voted off the
commission, and Sudan is sitting on the commission. It unfortunately
really calls into question the desire of those on the commission who
voted against us for a strong program of human rights. It is a bad day
for people who are still suffering in tyranny, and I am quite certain
and hopeful that it will get righted here soon. It's really not so
much for the United States. It's not a good thing for the people who
are suffering around the world in tyranny."

-- Rumsfeld on April 24 and 25 Bush remarks on Taiwan: "President Bush
was very clear in what he said. ... He said what he said. He meant
what he said, and the signal was taken, that the United States is in
fact - according to the law - intends to see that Taiwan receives
the kind of weapons and supplies that are necessary so that it is not
vulnerable to an attack."

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State.)