28 August 2001

Defense Department Report: Crouch on Missile Defense

While President Bush has said that he wants to "move beyond" the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty, the United States will continue to support the current nuclear weapons reduction regimes, which play an important role in the U.S.-Russian strategic relationship, says a senior U.S. Defense Department official.

J.D. Crouch, assistant secretary of defense for international security policy, told journalists August 28 that the United States does not intend to abrogate the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I). And he said the United States is well on the way to reducing its nuclear arsenal to below the 6,000-warhead limit set by the treaty.

"START I is a treaty that is in force and the United States has absolutely no intention of leaving START I, or changing its parameters in any way," Crouch said during a news media roundtable at the Pentagon. And while the START II treaty is not in force, he said, "the administration's position on START II has been essentially that we're headed in a direction ... of reductions."

President Bush has said he wants to reduce the strategic offensive nuclear stockpile to the lowest possible level consistent with U.S. national security interests and the interests of its allies, Crouch said. "And I would expect that there is going to be some further discussions about that with the Russians this fall," he added.

President George Bush, the current president's father, and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991 signed START I, which called for the two powers each to limit offensive nuclear weapons to 6,000 warheads. Russia's arsenal now numbers about 6,000 warheads; the U.S. arsenal stands at approximately 7,000, and is being reduced toward that level.

START II was signed by the elder Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin in early 1993. It calls for each side to reduce its arsenals to between 3,000 and 3,500 warheads, but it has not gone into effect because the Russian legislature attached conditions that the United States has not accepted.

Crouch restated, however, the current administration's intention to "move beyond the ABM Treaty." The president has said that "we would prefer to do that cooperatively with the Russians," he said, "and we think there is really a good basis for doing that."

Crouch said part of the reason for seeking to move beyond the ABM Treaty is that it is not conducive to a new strategic relationship between the United States and Russia. "The ABM Treaty, if you will, ensconces an adversarial relationship," he said. "It's based on the idea that there is stability in the ability of the United States and Russia to blow one another up. We think that is not an appropriate ... new relationship with Russia."

Instead, the United States seeks a strategic relationship based on shared values, common objectives and day-to-day economic relations, he said.

The ABM Treaty, signed by Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev and President Richard Nixon in the d��ente era, permits each country a single missile defense site, but prohibits development of a national anti-ballistic missile system. Moscow is, in fact, protected by an anti-ballistic missile defense.

The Bush administration's missile defense plan calls for research, testing and development of ground-based, warship-based, and air- and space-based systems designed to intercept ballistic missiles in their ascent, mid-course and terminal phases.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has opposed abrogating the ABM Treaty, citing it as a building block for international security that prevents either side from feeling invulnerable to nuclear retaliation.

The United States has argued that a multi-layered missile defense system is needed to defend the United States, its armed forces abroad and allies against a threat from antagonistic states.