Russia Still Not Swayed by Missile Shield Plan

MOSCOW — Russian officials remained stolidly opposed after meeting here Friday with U.S. officials to the Bush administration’s plan to abandon the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty in favor of a national missile defense shield.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said Friday afternoon that the U.S delegation led by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz failed to sway the Russians.

“The American side failed to present adequate reasons to convince us that they have a clear vision of how to resolve issues of international security without relying on the disarmament accords that have stood for 30 years,” Yakovenko said. “On the whole the consultations were substantive. But there still remain more questions than answers.”

U.S. envoys were sent around the globe this week in an attempt to persuade European and Asian governments about the need to rethink global security.

If U.S. allies in Europe remain skeptical about the administration’s plan, as the envoys discovered earlier in the week, Moscow is staunchly opposed. Russian officials fear that the proposed missile shield would render their nuclear arsenal ineffective and raise the odds of a unilateral U.S. attack on their nation.

Even before the meeting, Russian Foreign Ministry officials were quoted by the Interfax new agency as saying that a few hours of talks on such complex issues had no chance of bringing the sides closer together.

President Bush declared in a speech last week that the ABM Treaty is obsolete and must be abandoned, sparking concerns in Russia and elsewhere in Europe that the U.S. might scrap the treaty unilaterally, creating a vacuum.

Washington argues that the treaty is a relic of the Cold War and that Americans face new missile threats from terrorist groups and “states of concern” willing to attack the U.S. and risk the consequences.

The ABM Treaty maintained the balance of “mutual assured destruction” in part through an agreement between the U.S. and Russia to forgo building extensive antimissile defenses and to limit the way early warning radars can be deployed.

The treaty has been a key element of global security since 1972. Russia wants to maintain the treaty and to have both nations slash their numbers of nuclear missiles, which would suit its strapped financial circumstances.

Deputy National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley found something optimistic to say after Friday’s meeting, despite Russian opposition: “The fact that we are meeting and opening this dialogue is a sign of progress.”

He said that it was just the first step in consultations and that the issue will be discussed by Bush and Russian President Vladimir V. Putin in July at a gathering of the Group of 8 industrial nations in Italy.

The issue will also be discussed when Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Russian Foreign Minister Igor S. Ivanov meet next week in Washington.

Russia has played down the threat of missile launches by nations such as Iraq or North Korea. But even so, it put forward its own proposal for a global missile defense system.