ANSWERS: ABM TREATY CAN BE WITHDRAWN FROM OR RENEGOTIATED

THE ABM TREATY CAN BE WITHDRAWN FROM WITH SIX MONTHS NOTICE

David Buchan and Stephen Fidler: Financial Times (London) October 6, 1999, Pg. 22 HEADLINE: Star Wars strikes back: Will a US plan to create a shield against missile attacks start a new arms race, // ln-acs

Moscow cannot prevent the US pulling out of the ABM treaty; either side can do so at six months' notice.

ABM TREATY HAS A CLAUSE FOR ITS RENEGOTIATION

Ambassador Yury Nazarkin, Andrei Piontkovsky, director of the Center for Strategic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Systems Analysis; Vitaly Tsygichko, professor, member of the Russian Academy of Natural, Sevodnya, Nov. 18, 1999, p. 4. Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press December 22, 1999 SECTION: Vol. 51, No. 47; Pg. 10 HEADLINE: Do US ABM Plans Spell Death of Arms Control? // acs-ln-1/1/00

However, the Russian side seemed to back away from this position somewhat [in Cologne] in June 1999, when it agreed to include the following provision in a joint statement of the Presidents of the Russian Federation and the United States on strategic offensive and defensive weapons: "Both Parties affirm their existing obligations under Article XIII of the ABM Treaty to consider possible changes in the strategic situation that have a bearing on the ABM Treaty and, as appropriate, possible proposals for further increasing the viability of this Treaty." The two parties agreed to commence discussions of START III and the ABM Treaty. n2