BRUSSELS. Dec 18 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia and the United States will draft an agreement on radical cuts in strategic offensive weapons in six months, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov has said.
"I think we will approach the treaty on strategic arms cuts by June 2002," he told the press in Brussels on Tuesday.
He said the main question the sides have to agree upon is "the process of verifying the reduction process."
"Russia and the United States have announced the planned reduction parameters: 1,500 and 1,700-2,000 nuclear warheads respectively. As we see, a certain difference remains, but I think that it will be removed when the stage of signing concrete agreements is reached," he said.
The future agreement will not define the level of strategic armaments to be assigned to the missile force, navy or air force, Ivanov said. "The ceilings of reductions are known and neither side will discuss how many warheads are necessary on the ground, on the sea or in the air. We have our hands free in this respect," he added.
Ivanov said that the future agreement will not rest on a balance of strategic offensive and defense armaments. "From now on every side will decide the matter itself depending on geographical, economic and other considerations," he said.