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US Undersecretary meets with Russian officials
Moscow, May 05: US Undersecretary of State John Bolton held talks with top Russian officials today on arms control and ways to combat the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction, particularly in Iran and North Korea.
Moscow, May 05: US Undersecretary of State John Bolton held talks with top Russian officials today on arms control and ways to combat the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction, particularly in Iran and North Korea.
Bolton met with nuclear energy minister Alexander Rumyantsev and deputy foreign minister Georgy Mamedov, and he was scheduled to confer with deputy foreign minister Alexander Losyukov, Moscow's point man on the Koreas.
He was expected to reiterate us concerns about Russian aid to Iran's nuclear programme and about North Korea's nuclear weapons programme.
Over the past few months, US officials have had "some measure of success" in getting their Russian counterparts to acknowledge that Iran has a covert nuclear weapons programme, a senior US administration official said today on condition of anonymity. The official said that Moscow had also exhibited a new readiness to consider the threat of UN sanctions to push Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons programme.
Bolton was also expected to discuss the prospects for ratifying the latest arms control treaty, the treaty of Moscow, before US President George W Bush's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg later this month.
Leaders of Russia's Lower House of Parliament have said that they may present the treaty, which calls on both nations to cut their strategic nuclear arsenals by about two-thirds by 2012, for ratification on may 16. They had put off ratification earlier this spring because of Russia's opposition to the US-led war in Iraq.
Bureau Report
Over the past few months, US officials have had "some measure of success" in getting their Russian counterparts to acknowledge that Iran has a covert nuclear weapons programme, a senior US administration official said today on condition of anonymity. The official said that Moscow had also exhibited a new readiness to consider the threat of UN sanctions to push Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons programme.
Bolton was also expected to discuss the prospects for ratifying the latest arms control treaty, the treaty of Moscow, before US President George W Bush's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg later this month.
Leaders of Russia's Lower House of Parliament have said that they may present the treaty, which calls on both nations to cut their strategic nuclear arsenals by about two-thirds by 2012, for ratification on may 16. They had put off ratification earlier this spring because of Russia's opposition to the US-led war in Iraq.
Bureau Report