RUSSIA AND RED CHINA JOIN HANDS IN OPPOSING U.S. ABM TREATY MODIFICATIONS.

Russian and Chinese diplomats met in Moscow on November 26 for a second round of consultations devoted to key international security issues, including questions related to “strategic stability, disarmament and arms control.” But both sides made clear afterward that the real focus of the talks involved joint Russian-Chinese opposition to U.S. efforts both to amend the ABM treaty and to move forward with the deployment of a limited national missile defense system. The Russian and Chinese delegations–which were led by Deputy Foreign Ministers Grigory Berdennikov and Wang Guanya, respectively–reportedly reaffirmed their commitment to the preservation of the ABM treaty as the cornerstone of international stability and security. They likewise reaffirmed their intention to pursue “close and multifaceted interaction” in order to achieve this goal (Russian agencies, November 27, 29; Xinhua, November 27).

The November 26 announcements out of Moscow were no surprise. Russia has from the beginning opposed U.S. efforts to amend the ABM treaty in order to proceed with the development of a ballistic missile defense system. China originally approached the issue more narrowly, focusing its opposition on plans for a U.S.-Japanese theater missile defense system in Asia. More recently, however, Beijing has taken up Moscow’s more general opposition to U.S. ABM and missile defense plans, and has joined Russian efforts to have those plans condemned at the UN. Indeed, the extent to which Beijing’s policies have come to mirror Moscow’s in this area was made clear earlier last week when Sha Zukang, China’s top disarmament official, warned that U.S. plans to build an antimissile defense system could trigger an arms race, shatter international stability and reverse the nuclear disarmament process (Reuters, November 24).

PRO-KREMLIN MEDIA ATTACK LUZHKOV AND MOSCOW POLICE CHIEF.