IMPACTS: NMD DESTROYS THE GLOBAL PROSPECTS FOR ARMS CONTROL

NMD WILL STOP THE PROGRESS WE ARE MAKING TOWARDS DISARMAMENT

DAVE KNIGHT, Chairman, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, March 19, 2001, The Times (London) HEADLINE: Debate needed on missile defence

It is almost a year since the five largest nuclear powers gave a clear written undertaking "to accomplish the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals leading to nuclear disarmament" (report, May 22, 2000), and the world awaits an indication of how this objective is to be achieved.

Many agree that the implications of missile defence include destabilising international relations, undermining existing arms control treaties and causing a new nuclear arms race.

DEPLOYMENT OF MISSILE DEFENSES WOULD MAKE OTHER NUCLEAR COUNTRIES LIKE CHINA, BRITAIN, AND FRANCE LESS WILLING TO ENTER INTO FUTURE NUCLEAR REDUCTION AGREEMENTS.

Deployment of missile defenses would make other nuclear countries like China, Britain, and France less willing to enter into future nuclear reduction agreements.

Nations that believe that their smaller nuclear forces could be neutralized by ballistic missile defenses would become hesitant to agree to nuclear arms reductions and/or feel obliged to build up their national deterrent forces.

  USA NATIONAL MISSILE DEFENSE SYSTEM WILL BURY THE CURRENT ARMS CONTROL PROCESS

The Toronto Star August 20, 1999, HEADLINE: RUSSIA, U.S. ARMS-CURB TALKS STALL // lnu-acs

Russia and the United States ended a new round of arms control talks yesterday with Moscow saying U.S. plans for a ''Star Wars'' missile defence system could start a new arms race in outer space.

After three days of initial talks on a new treaty, the two sides appeared to make little progress, with U.S. hopes to alter the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty the chief bone of contention.

The head of the Russian delegation told reporters that Washington's plans to build a new ''Star Wars''-style missile defence system could bury the entire arms control framework.

''The arms race could now leap to outer space,'' Interfax news agency quoted Grigory Berdennikov, director of the arms control department at the Russian foreign ministry, as saying.

NATIONAL MISSILE DEFENSE WILL ABOLISH THE ABM TREATY AND DESTROY THE WHOLE SYSTEM OF INTRNATIONAL TREATIES IN THE DISARMAMENT FIELD

The Toronto Star May 12, 1999, HEADLINE: RUSSIA, CHINA CRITICIZE U.S. DEFENCE SYSTEM // lnu-acs

Russian Ambassador Vasily Sidorov said deployment of a national missile defence system would violate ''a fundamental obligation under the ABM treaty not to deploy ABM systems for the defence of national territory.''

Deployment ''will lead to actual abolition of the treaty,'' upsetting ''the whole system of international treaties in the disarmament field.''

THE BEST WAY TO STOP NUCLEAR ATTACK IS BY REDUCING NUCLEAR WEAPONS, THUS THE ARMS CONTROL PATH IS MUCH BETTER THAN THE NATIONAL MISSILE DEFENSE PATH

Most importantly, there are on-going efforts to reduce the risks of a nuclear attack by any means--from missile to truck bomb--through reducing existing nuclear arsenals and preventing the spread of weapons material and technology. The threat to the United States has already been reduced significantly through the START I treaty, and will be reduced even further when the START II treaty is ratified and implemented and is followed by START III. Because of these treaties and other arrangements, the United States and Russia have started to dismantle 2,000 nuclear warheads every year. Further agreements could move us step by step toward better control over all nuclear weapons by reducing existing nuclear arsenals and by preventing new nuclear threats from emerging and by more effective international action against missile proliferation.

THE ARMS CONTROL SOLUTION IS MUCH MORE LIKELY TO AVOID NUCLEAR WAR THAN THE RAPID DEPLOYMENT SCENARIO

MARC SHER, The New York Times, November 7, 1999, SECTION: Section 4; Page 14; HEADLINE: A Hole in the Defense // ln-acs-11-11-99

William Safire (column, Nov. 4) warns of a possible scenario in which a dictator from a rogue state threatens to fire a nuclear missile at New York. Without a missile defense system, the president is forced to back down.

But there is another possible scenario: Because of United States insistence on a missile defense system, arms control agreements collapse and thousands of nuclear weapons are not destroyed. As Russia collapses, these weapons find their way into the hands of a dictator who is not deterred by a missile defense system. Using a motor boat, small airplane or truck, he smuggles these weapons into the United States.

NMD WILL DESTROY ARMS LIMITATION STRUCTURES BUILT UP OVER DECADES

Andrei Kirillov TASS December 23, 1999, HEADLINE: Attempts to undermine ABM treaty are most dangerous // acs-ln-1/1/00

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin, who has completed here his consultations with Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Liu Guchang, described the plans to undermine the ABM treaty as "an extremely dangerous idea".

If the ABM treaty is undermined, Karasin stated, "this may ruin the system of international relations in the sphere of armaments limitation, which took several decades to be built up". "This is very dangerous," he added.