SECURITY ISSUES ALSO DISCUSSED.

The Clinton-Yeltsin talks in Moscow mark the fourth time in five years that the two presidents have held formal summit meetings. The U.S. president was greeted on his arrival in Moscow early yesterday morning by acting Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin. Yeltsin and Clinton began their talks yesterday at the Kremlin in the presence of their press secretaries only. According to Russian sources, the larger Russian and U.S. delegations that eventually took part in the talks included, on the Russian side, acting Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov, Kremlin press secretary and foreign policy adviser Sergei Yastrzhembsky, and Security Council Secretary Andrei Kokoshin. Among those present on the American side were U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, her first deputy, Strobe Talbott, and White House National Security Adviser Samuel Berger. (Itar-Tass, September 1)

According to Yastrzhembsky, the Yeltsin-Clinton talks yesterday focused first on Russia’s economic crisis, and then moved on to include a wide range of international and bilateral security and foreign policy issues. Those issues, Yastrzhembsky said, included strategic arms control and a possible START III treaty that would further reduce Russian and U.S. nuclear arsenals. The two presidents also discussed the CFE Treaty, Yastrzhembsky said, as well as the battle against international terrorism and questions related to the inadmissibility of exporting missile technologies to Iran and Pakistan. (Russian agencies, September 1)

According to American sources, two other security issues were on yesterday’s agenda and should result today in agreements to be signed by the two sides. One of those involves a plan to dispose of plutonium for nuclear warheads. A second involves a commitment by both countries to share information on the launching of ballistic missiles and space launch vehicles. Washington and Moscow are also expected to agree to establish a system for exchanging early-warning data from satellites and ground stations immediately after the launch of missiles from any third country. (AP, Washington Post, September 1)

MOSCOW SENDS MIXED SIGNALS ON NORTH KOREAN MISSILE TEST.