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Rice Lauds Progress on Russian Nuclear Cooperation
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reported yesterday that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov had agreed to improve U.S. access to Russian nuclear facilities as part of ongoing efforts to increase security over Russian nuclear weapons and materials. The two officials met yesterday in Moscow as a prelude to a presidential meeting next month in Russia (see GSN, April 19; George Gedda, Associated Press I/San Diego Union-Tribune, April 20). “We have, I think, made improvements in our access to these sites. We have work to do still. We have work to do on certain liability issues. And I do hope that at the time of the meeting of President [George W.] Bush and President [Vladimir] Putin, we could have even made more progress on these matters,” Rice said in a radio interview with Ekho Moskvy. Rice also addressed concerns that U.S.-funded programs to secure Russian nuclear materials infringe upon Russian rights. “We do not consider, in any way, the inspections that need to take place, issues of sovereignty. These are issues of cooperation, because we all need to be concerned about what happens as we dismantle the old nuclear weapons arsenals. No one wants the materials or the weapons to fall into the hands of bad people,” Rice said. “Both the United States and Russia have a history, a very unfortunate history with terrorism. We know what it would be like if the terrorists had, somehow, access to these weapons. And so, our goal is to cooperate together in a spirit of friendship and working on a very difficult but important problem,” she added (U.S. State Department release, April 20). Ivanov quickly played down Rice’s remarks, however. “Visits by U.S. inspectors to nuclear installations in Russia are not under consideration, this is not an issue,” he said. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov later suggested a middle ground, noting that Bush and Putin had agreed at their February summit in Slovakia to increase cooperation on nuclear security matters (see GSN, Feb. 24). “In Bratislava, the presidents brought absolute clarity to this issue by ordering the respective agencies of the two nations to cooperate in the sphere of security of nuclear facilities and nuclear materials and this order is based entirely on the basis of reciprocity, and I have not heard about any additional agreements,” he said (Associated Press II, April 20).
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