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Putin, Rice hold talks on defense issues |
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17:37, October 12, 2007 |
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned a U.S. delegation on Friday that Russia will find it difficult to remain in a treaty on the elimination of intermediate and short range missiles unless it is expanded to include other countries.
"We need to bring things to a point so that this Russian-American agreement is given a global nature .... If we arenot able to do this, it will be difficult for us to remain within the bounds of this agreement," Putin said at the talks with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates.
Russia and the United States signed a treaty on eliminating intermediate and short range missiles in 1987.
"In our opinion it is necessary to make those restrictions between the United States and the Russian Federation a truly universal treaty," Itar-Tass news agency quoted Putin as saying.
Putin also said that he hoped the U.S. would not rush to implement a plan to establish missile defense facilities in Eastern Europe.
Russian foreign and defense ministers participated in the talks at Putin's presidential residence of Novo-Ogaryovo near Moscow.
The talks focused on missile defense, the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty, and ways to further reduce offensive arms after the START-1 (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) expires.
Source: Xinhua
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