MOSCOW. Feb 1 (Interfax-AVN) - It is important that Russia- U.S. agreements on further drastic, irreversible and verifiable reductions in strategic offensive weapons be stipulated in 2002, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov told diplomats from the Asia-Pacific region on Thursday.
Such agreements would "fill in the legal vacuum that appeared in the wake of the United States' destructive decision to withdraw from the ABM Treaty," Losyukov said.
Russia "hopes to build stable, constructive and predictable relations with the United States," he said.
"The positive transformation in bilateral relations should not lose its tempo," he said.