RUSSIA - May 11 - Consultations On US Missile Defence.

The Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko says: "The United States has been unable to give us arguments to convince us that they see clearly how to solve the problems of international security without damaging disarmament agreements which have stood for 30 years" (referring to the consultations with the US delegation led by Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. This echoes the scepticism expressed from London to Tokyo after US Pres. Bush's May 1 speech on missile defences. During his stop in Berlin, Wolfowitz said: "It is much too early, I think, even for us to ask people to agree with us because we have not come to firm conclusions yet ourselves". FM Igor Ivanov, who travels to Washington next week to meet Secretary of State Colin Powell, said in Helsinki: "We live in hope, and Russia will do everything it can to ensure that as a result of these talks, international security will be strengthened and no harm will be done to anyone's interests. In matters of strategic stability, it pays to act in a way that does not cause any harm". Though Moscow officials made no public mention of the fact that Wolfowitz was chosen to lead the US delegation, the diplomatic corps took note that the White House had sent to Moscow a senior official associated with formulating a harder line towards Russia. In March interview with a British newspaper, Wolfowitz said Russia was one of the worst proliferators of missile technology, adding: "These people seem to be willing to sell anything to anyone for money". Since those remarks, his public comments have been more restrained and constructive). After the consultations with the Foreign Ministry officials, Wolfowitz remained silent as deputy national security adviser Stephen Hadley said: "The fact that we are meeting and opening this dialogue is a sign of progress. It is a first step in a consultation process which will continue over the weeks ahead and include discussions and consultations between our two presidents". In the evening, after the US delegation departed for Washington, the General Staff issued a harsher statement saying that Bush's initial approach to missile defense was "mistaken", warning that a "unilateral withdrawal" by the US from the 1972 ABM Treaty would trigger a Russian response "to ensure the interests of its security and the security of its allies". Military leaders warn that "Russia possesses the technical, intellectual and technological potential" to respond to a unilateral US deployment of missile defences. A military spokesman Col. Gen. Valeri Manilov added that Moscow continued to press for an approach to missile threats in which it would participate with "the Americans, the Europeans and other partners". (Analysts say Moscow might provide China with technologies to strengthen or expand its nuclear arsenal. But there are also strong hints that Moscow is continuing to press for a prominent role in missile defence that would bind it more closely with Europe and the US, a strategy that might leave China more isolated).