The United States recently said a proposal to build a national
missile defense system -- condemned in joint Russian-Chinese
statement -- was not directed at either of those nations and was
still under discussion.
Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Russian President Vladimir Putin
issued a joint statement in Beijing earlier in the day condemning
the U.S. National Missile Defense plan and warning of ``grave''
security consequences if it goes ahead.
``We've made quite clear that our National Missile Defense is not
directed against Russia and it is not directed against China; it is
designed to deal with the emerging long-range ballistic missile
threat,'' State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters
on the sidelines of the Middle East peace summit at Camp David.
When asked about the communique, issued in Beijing during Putin's
visit to China, White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said, ``I think
President Putin has made his views well-known on this issue. He's
discussed this with the president while we were in Russia.''
``I expect we'll have a further discussion in the context of the
G7/G8 meetings,'' Lockhart added during a briefing near Camp David,
where President Clinton is involved in the Middle East peace
talks.
Leaders of the G8 industrialized nations are meeting in Okinawa,
Japan, later this week.
In
their statement Putin and Jiang said the United States was seeking
``unilateral military and security advantages'' with its plans for
the missile defense shield.
``Implementing this plan will have the most grave adverse
consequences not only to the national security of Russia, China and
other countries, but also to the security and international
strategic stability of the United States itself,'' their joint
statement said.
Lockhart said Clinton was still deciding whether or not to go ahead
with the missile shield plan.
``I think for our part, the president is still awaiting a
recommendation from the secretary of defense (William Cohen) and
will make his decision based on the four criteria that he's laid
out,'' Lockhart added. Those criteria are: threat assessment; the
feasibility of any system; its cost; and the effect that its
deployment may have on overall US security, including arms
control.
Clinton is under domestic pressure to take steps to construct the
system to protect the United States from possible missile attacks
from ``states of concern'' such as North Korea, Iran and Iraq.
Russia opposes the missile defense system, and Putin told Clinton
so during a visit to Moscow last month. China has suggested it
would rethink previous non-proliferation pledges if the United
States goes ahead with the shield.
Russia and China say the missile defense program would undermine
arms agreements and the system of deterrence that has helped keep
the peace for decades.
``We are less confident that deterrence would work against a North
Korea or Iran or Iraq than we are with China and Russia,'' said
senior US arms control adviser John Holum, who recently returned
from Beijing.
``They have less of a history of dealing with these capabilities,''
Holum told reporters at a breakfast meeting.
Boucher said the United States would continue discussions on the
missile defense system with China, Russia and its allies.
``But in the end, the president has to make a decision based on
what's in the US national interest, considering the kind of threat
and the cost and feasibility of and the overall environment,'' he
said.
A
US attempt to intercept and destroy a target warhead in space
failed earlier this month, throwing into question whether the
proposed system would even work. It was the second failure in three
tries for the system. The miss could weigh heavily in a decision
that Clinton is due to make later this year on whether to begin
building a new radar in Alaska for a limited missile defense.