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Disarmament DocumentationBack to Disarmament Documentation 'Our attitude towards these plans will depend... on the extent to which they pose a threat to Russian interests', Russian Foreign Ministry Press Release on US global forces realignment, August 17, 2004Russian Foreign Ministry Press Release on Washington's Statements About Plans for Redeployment of US Troops in Europe, August 17, 2004. Moscow certainly has taken note of the appropriate part of US President George W. Bush's speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Cincinnati on August 16. The American side had preliminarily informed us of the plans for changes in the basing of US forces abroad because of the altered character of threats since the end of the Cold War and, first and foremost, the growing threat of international terrorism. Furthermore we note that it is primarily about the return to the US of a part of the American troops and weapons abroad, as also about a review of the current scheme of basing so as to bring US military contingents nearer to the sources of possible threats. In this context we continue to accentuate the American side's attention to the fact that any plans in this area should fully correspond to the obligations the US has assumed for the limitation of arms and forces, in particular, those contained in the CFE Treaty, the Russia-NATO Founding Act, and the statements of the Russia-NATO Council. We also presume that, as US official representatives have assured us, American military bases will not be positioned in the Baltic area and Transcaucasia. As to the Afghanistan counterterrorist operation related bases deployed in Central Asia, they we understand will be removed as this operation draws to an end. Our attitude towards these plans will depend on their further concretization and on the extent to which they pose a threat to Russian interests. Source: Russian Embassy to the United States, http://www.russianembassy.org. © 2003 The Acronym Institute. |