Agreement Voiced On Rogue States Such As Iran, North Korea
President Bush and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev discussed U.S. plans to install a missile defense system in Europe, but failed to reach agreement on the issue.
Their discussion, at the Group of Eight industrialized nations in Toyako, Japan, came as Bush has only half a year left in office before a new administration takes over the White House.
It was the first time Bush met with Medvedev since his election as the Russian president.
Russia has lashed out at the United States for its plans to install a variant of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system in Europe, claiming it threatens Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).
Bush during the meeting again laid out the U.S. response, which is that there only would be 10 or so U.S. interceptors in silos in Poland (if Poland agrees to the deal), versus hundreds of Russian ICBMs and nuclear warheads. Further, the U.S. notes that the European Missile Defense (EMD) interceptors wouldn’t be fast enough to catch the Russian ICBMs.
Rather, the EMD interceptors would be installed to shield Europe and the United States from attack by enemy missiles launched from Middle Eastern nations such as Iran.
Through a translator, Medvedev indicated he and Bush reached no agreement on the EMD installation.
He said on some issues “with respect to European affairs and missile defense … we have differences.”
“On certain matters we do have differences originating from the previous background and differences are there.”
At the same time, Medvedev didn’t say the divide was irreconcilable, indicating that Russia at least is willing to continue talks on the matter. “We would like to agree on these matters, as well, and we also feel very comfortable in our dealings with” Bush.
The Russian leader also noted that he and Bush agree on some issues, such as wishing to prevent Iran and North Korea from continuing their nuclear programs.
On such matters, “we have absolutely similar positions,” Medvedev said. “But what is really important, the dialogue is there and there is a commonality of the overview on various things between us.”
He added that “there are certain questions on our agenda where we agree, and these are the matters pertaining to Iran, North Korea.”
Similarly, Bush said that “while there’s some areas of disagreement, there’s also areas where I know we can work together for the common good.”
He specifically cited Iran as an example.
“Iran is an area where Russia and the United States have worked closely in the past and will continue to work closely to convince the regime to give up its desire to enrich uranium,” Bush said.
Iran has continued producing nuclear materials, claiming they are needed to fuel nuclear electrical generating plants, even though Russia already provided enough processed nuclear fuel to fill that need. Despite global condemnation and United Nations positions, Iran accepts sanctions instead of abandoning its program.
As well, Iran has obtained missiles of steadily longer ranges; fired multiple missiles in salvo tests; fired a missile from a submerged submarine; and said it is embarked upon a space program, which involves much the same technology as is required for an ICBM.
Finally, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said Israel must be wiped from the map, and that Israel soon shall cease to exist. And he has denied the Holocaust occurred.
In other developments, Bush defended his decision toward removing North Korea from a list of nations sponsoring terrorism, and easing trading-with-the-enemy restrictions on the isolated Northeast Asian regime.
That came after North Korea blew up a cooling tower at its Pyonyang nuclear reactor and handed the West documents related to its nuclear weapons plutonium production program, documents that were found to be incomplete.
North Korea still hasn’t admitted that it pursued a parallel enriched uranium nuclear materials production program, even though minute traces of that substance were discovered on pages of documents it supplied the West.
After North Korea received a shipment of tons of wheat from the West, and after Bush said North Korea should be removed from the list of terrorism-supporting states, and should receive other benefits, however, North Korea said it won’t proceed with further dismantling of its nuclear facilities.
North Korea gave as an excuse for halting progress that various nations have fallen behind in providing fuel oil and other benefits in exchange for its disarmament progress, asserting that those nations have made just 40 percent of promised oil shipments.
Bush also defended his decision to attend the opening ceremonies of the Summer Olympics in China, saying that boycotting the games would “be an affront to the Chinese people” that would make negotiating with Sino leaders more difficult.
But leaders of some other industrialized nations have decided not to attend the ceremonies to protest heavy-handed Chinese human rights violations in China and in Tibet.
China, which enjoys an enormous trade surplus with the United States, is able to afford an immense military buildup, obtaining vast amounts of cutting-edge missiles, aircraft, submarines, ships and more.
Military analysts say China has become a near-peer military competitor of the United States. Also, China vows to invade Taiwan and force it to submit to rule by Beijing unless the island nation does so voluntarily, while the United States at times has pledged to oppose such a violent move, causing some analysts to predict that China may engage in military conflict with U.S. forces.
China now commands Jin Class submarines with unlimited range and nuclear-tipped missiles that can be launched from beneath the Pacific Ocean to hit targets such as New York City; Sovremenny destroyers; long-range bombers; more than 1,400 missiles aimed toward Taiwan; land-based ICBMs that can strike U.S. cities from launch points in China; anti-satellite missiles and lasers that could disable or destroy U.S. military and civilian satellites; cyber-warrior brigades that could devastate U.S. communications and computer networks; spies infiltrating the U.S. military to steal nuclear-weapons secrets, and more.
Also, China has engaged in provocative acts, such as one of its fighter aircraft smashing into a U.S. Navy intelligence aircraft flying peacefully and lawfully in international airspace, and then — when the aircraft broadcast a distress message and made an emergency landing on Chinese territory — seizing the crew of two dozen men and women in uniform and holding them captive for 10 days until the United States apologized twice (“very sorry … very sorry”) for the crew saving itself from death by landing there.