ALBRIGHT OFFERS PLAN TO EASE RUSSIA'S FEARS ABOUT NATO.Byline: Michael R. Gordon Michael R. Gordon is the chief military correspondent for The New York Times [1]. Together with Judith Miller, he wrote most of that paper's coverage of the Bush administration's case for war with Iraq in 2002. The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times Secretary of State Madeleine Albright Madeleine Korbel Albright (born May 15 1937) was the first woman to become United States Secretary of State. She was nominated by President Bill Clinton on December 5 1996 and was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate 99-0. She was sworn in on January 23 1997. on Thursday presented the Kremlin with a new arms control arms control Limitation of the development, testing, production, deployment, proliferation, or use of weapons through international agreements. Arms control did not arise in international diplomacy until the first Hague Convention (1899). proposal that would freeze military forces near Russia's European periphery, the West's first detailed response to Russian anxieties about NATO NATO: see North Atlantic Treaty Organization. NATO in full North Atlantic Treaty Organization International military alliance created to defend western Europe against a possible Soviet invasion. expansion. The proposal, which was outlined by senior Western officials on condition that they not be identified, is part of a broader American arms control plan that seeks to persuade Moscow that the expansion of NATO would not bring the alliance's military might to Russia's doorstep. But the new plan would not require reductions in NATO forces See: force(s). or dramatically alter the military balance on the European continent, American officials said. Albright outlined the plan in a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov Yevgeny Maksimovich Primakov (Евгений Максимович Примаков) (born October 29, 1929) is a Russian politician and a former Prime . The plan was also presented Thursday to NATO allies in Vienna. Sergei Yastrzhembsky, President Boris Yeltsin's spokesman, said that the Kremlin would carefully study the new ideas. But Moscow has also continued its public refrain that the expansion of NATO may destabilize de·sta·bi·lize tr.v. de·sta·bi·lized, de·sta·bi·liz·ing, de·sta·bi·liz·es 1. To upset the stability or smooth functioning of: Russia and renew old tensions. The main aim of the new proposal is to ease Moscow's fear that NATO is trying to take advantage of Russia at a time of weakness. Fear of enclosure has long been a theme in Russian military thinking, and most of Moscow's recent proposals have been aimed at constraining NATO's ability to operate on the territory of new Eastern European members. To address Russian concerns, the new proposal would update the 1990 treaty slashing conventional forces with Europe, which was hammered out between the NATO alliance and the old Soviet-led bloc. That treaty has also led to the destruction of some 50,000 weapons. ``What this does is reduce NATO's military potential and limit the forces that are close to Russian territory,'' a Western official said. The new proposal covers tanks, armored personnel carriers, and artillery. It stipulates that the number of weapons in the so-called Visegrad nations that are candidates for early NATO membership cannot be increased. These are Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. This goes only part way to meeting Russian demands. The new NATO plan, for example, rejects Primakov's demand for a ban on the construction of new NATO bases and other installations in these nations. Nor does it accept Russian proposals for limits on the movement of American and Western European forces on the territory of new NATO members. |
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