RUSSIA - Dec. 13 - Washington Withdraws From ABM Treaty.

US Pres. Bush formally announces that the US is withdrawing from the 1972 ABM Treaty. He says the move reflects "a vastly different world". He says: "I have concluded the ABM Treaty hinders our government's ways to protect our people from future terrorist or rogue state missile attacks. Defending the American people is my highest priority as commander in chief, and I cannot and will not allow the United States to remain in a treaty that prevents us from developing effective defences". He says the 1972 ABM Treaty was signed by the US and the Soviet Union "at a much different time, in a vastly different world. One of the signatories, the Soviet Union, no longer exists. And neither does the hostility that once led both our countries to keep thousands of nuclear weapons on hair-trigger alert, pointed at each other. The grim theory was that neither side would launch a nuclear attack because it knew the other would respond, thereby destroying both. Today, as the events of Sept. 11 made all too clear, the greatest threats to both our countries come not from each other, or other big powers in the world, but from terrorists who strike without warning, or rogue states who seek weapons of mass destruction". He says he has given Moscow formal notice of the move earlier in the day. He adds that he has forged common ground for a new strategic relationship with Moscow at a number of meetings with Pres. Putin, whom he refers to as "my friend". The two leaders have agreed, Bush says, that "my decision to withdraw from the treaty will not, in any way, undermine our new relationship or Russian security". US State Secretary Powell strongly defends the decision to withdraw from the treaty, and says it should not harm Washington-Moscow relations. He adds: "I don't see a basis for an arms race in anything we have done. I see a basis for strategic stability". He says a series of meetings between Bush and Putin have built "the kind of relationship that could survive disagreement".