U. S. Plans to Purchase Russian Weapons for the MD System

The Bush administration has prepared a broad offer of arms purchases, military aid and joint antimissile exercises, in order to win Russia`s cooperation in scrapping the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty, reported the New York Times yesterday.

Officials said the proposals are likely to include an offer to buy Russian-made S-300 surface-to-air missiles that could be integrated into a defensive shield over Russia and Europe.

The US has also reviewed the offers to hold joint exercises in future years to identify and shoot down the attacking warheads, to provide money for Russia`s decaying radar system and to share the early-warning data alarming the missile attacks.

The New York Times reported that the US administration`s ideas were first outlined to the Russian officials earlier this month in Moscow by Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz, when he visited Russia to explain the necessity of the MD system.

The US will present the full plan in the meeting between President Bush and President Vladimir V. Putin, on June 16 in Slovenia.

The US has offered to provide money for the replacement of Russia`s radar system and has previously held joint military exercises.

Both countries have reviewed the joint missile-defense exercises in 1992, and have conducted two joint missile-defense exercises in Moscow in 1996 and in Colorado Springs in 1998 by computer simulations.

And the former President Bill Clinton has also offered to help Russia complete a large missile-tracking radar near Irkutsk, in Siberia, if Moscow agreed to renegotiate the ABM Treaty.

Regarding the offers, the New York Times analyzed that the Bush administration found itself in a position of needing President Putin`s agreement in order to proceed the employment of the MD system, defusing the strong European objections to the military plans.

That is, it is necessary to acquire Russia`s cooperation in order to satisfy the Congress, in case if the objections of the European countries are still robust. President Bush has been complicated by the defection of Senator James M. Jeffords from the Republican Party, and the subsequent loss of Republican control of the Senate.

But the New York Times pointed out that it is unclear that Russia will accept the offers because Russia has talked about the cooperation with China to counter the growing American military and economic power around the globe.

Shin Chi-Young higgledy@donga.com