- Secretary of State Warren Christopher said Tuesday the United States and Russia were close to agreement on ending Moscow's arms sales to Iran.
``Without being more specific, I think there's a resolution in sight on this very diffiuclt issue,'' he told reporters.
Russian sales of weaponry to Iran are an irritant in U.S.-Russian
relations. Washington considers Iran the world's leading proponent of
terrorism.
Asked if a deal would involve a cutoff in Russian arms sales to Iran,
Christopher said: ``I'm hinting that a resolution of this matter is within
view and since that was the core of the problem obviously it would involve
some approach of that kind.''
He said President Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin discussed
the issue at length in their summit talks Tuesday and would do so again
Wednesday.
REUTER
U.S. and Russia can afford to disagree now
By Patrick Worsnip
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - As presidents Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin hold
their third summit, the United States and Russia are taking the novel line
that their relations are now so good they can afford to quarrel without
threatening world peace.
``Normal'' is the new watchword being used to describe the ties between
the two countries that once threatened each other with nuclear annihilation
and still hold the world's biggest atomic arsenals: normal agreements, normal
disagreements.
With the euphoria of the post-Cold War era long over, Moscow and
Washington are finding their disputes have by no means been solved by
Russia's conversion from communism to capitalism and free elections.
From Bosnia to arms control to trade, their interests differ -- but
that's all right, Clinton and Yeltsin said in keynote speeches on the White
House south lawn at the start of their summit Tuesday.
``Where we do disagree, we can discuss our differences in a climate of
warm peace, not cold war,'' Clinton declared.
``The United States is a strong partner and not an easy one to deal with,
just like Russia,'' Yeltsin responded.
It was not so long ago, Clinton recalled, that U.S. and Soviet leaders
met ``in a heavy atmosphere of mutual suspicion and fear. The fate of the
world seemed to hang in the balance of those encounters, and success was
defined as the avoidance of confrontation or crisis.''
No sooner was that era over, with the end of the Cold War, than the
United States was faced with heavily dependent Moscow leaders: first Mikhail
Gorbachev, as the Soviet Union crumbled around him, then a Yeltsin deeply
embroiled in crises at home.
Clinton's main concern at his first summit with Yeltsin in Vancouver in
April 1993 was to prop up the Russian leader as he battled economic disaster
and a recalcitrant parliament.
The situation was just as grave at their second meeting in Moscow last
January, as Russia reeled from the stunning defeat of Yeltsin's supporters by
ultra-nationalists and communists in parliamentary elections the previous
month.
In the eight months since then, U.S. and Russian analysts agree, the
situation in Russia has stabilized considerably.
Inflation is down to about five percent a month, less than half what it
was at the beginning of the year, the move to a market economy continues, and
the opposition forces that scored in last year's elections seem to have lost
momentum.
With fears of catastrophe in Russia fading, and Clinton preoccupied with
problems closer to home such as Haiti and Cuba, Russian officials are not
entirely sorry to have slipped down Washington's agenda.
``Russia is not as important as it used to be,'' says Sergei Karaganov, a
Yeltsin adviser and security policy specialist. ''The American view of Russia
is relatively relaxed.''
With the Russian economy, if not strengthening, at least not getting
dramatically worse, Yeltsin's economic aides have switched from seeking aid
to seeking investment.
The trends have strengthened Yeltsin's hand in asserting Russian
interests abroad, pushing Moscow's case for keeping order in other ex-Soviet
republics, demanding a say in Bosnia and opposing NATO membership for former
Warsaw Pact countries.
These policies have aroused concern among some U.S. analysts that the
Clinton administration, looking for Russian support at the United Nations for
its activities in Haiti and elsewhere, could tacitly endorse Moscow's
desires.
``While there may be little the United States can do to check Russian
ambitions in the territory of the former Soviet Union, Clinton should use the
summit to refute the perception that the U.S. has acquiesced to a Russian
'sphere of influence','' says the conservative Heritage Foundation.
U.S. officials say they will not agree to what some analysts call a ``new
Yalta'' -- a reference to the post-World War Two allied agreement on the
future of Europe -- whereby each superpower would have a free hand in its own
back yard.
They say they plan to make clear to Russia that talks on the expansion of
NATO will begin within the alliance this autumn, and will press Moscow to
stop its arms exports to Iran, though with little hope of success.
Differences on lifting the arms embargo against Bosnia's mainly Muslim
government government -- favored by Washington but opposed by Moscow -- also
seem unlikely to be resolved.
Russia has moved on since it appeared ready to agree to almost any U.S.
proposal. But U.S. officials say they are better off in the long run with a
more secure and self-assured Russian leadership.
REUTER
U.S., Russia sign over $1 billion in aid, trade
By Susan Cornwell
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - The United States and Russia signed aid and trade
deals amounting to over $1 billion Tuesday, underscoring economic ties that
Commerce Secretary Ron Brown called the ``centerpiece'' of the U.S.-Russian
summit.
The deals, ranging from financing for drilling Siberian oil wells to a
contract to modernize Moscow's telephone network, were signed in the ornate
Indian Treaty Room of the Old Executive Office Building as business leaders
mingled with U.S. and Russian officials.
Brown, standing next to Foreign Economic Relations Minister Oleg Davydov,
said Americans were ``not waiting for ideal conditions, but forging ahead''
to invest in Russia as it opened its formerly state-run economy to the world.
Brown said that a few years ago, no one could have imagined that ``the
centerpiece of the summit between the presidents of Russia and the United
States would be the commercial interests of those two countries, would be
trade and investment, would be the economic relations.''
Wednesday, President Clinton and visiting Russian President Boris Yeltsin
are to sign a ``Partnership for Economic Progress'' calling for a reduction
in Russia's barriers to trade and investment and continued U.S. suppport for
economic reform in Russia.
Tuesday's signings focused on U.S. assistance to U.S.-Russian joint
ventures, as well as grants to help U.S. firms get started in Russia and
other business deals.
The biggest dollar amount came from the U.S. Export-Import Bank, which
helps finance American exports. Its representatives signed two deals
providing $689 million in loan guarantees for oil, gas, communications,
computer and airline projects in Russia.
Officials from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, another U.S.
government agency, provided $475 million in financing and political risk
insurance for U.S. companies in joint ventures there.
Among these are ventures in Subway sandwich shops, aerospace
manufacturing, telephone service and oil production.
AT&T inked a deal with Moscow's leading telecommunications operators to
modernize Moscow's telephone network.
Brown also announced $1.5 million in new grants under the Commerce
Department Consortia of American Business in the Newly-Independent States.
These grants are designed to help U.S. firms establish a commercial presence
in the former Soviet states.
He also signed a memorandum of understanding with Davydov to provide U.S.
assistance for the launching of a new Russian business center in Moscow.
The White House said in a statement that given the right conditions,
bilateral trade between the United States and Russia could more than double
its current level of $4.7 billion a year by the turn of the century.
Davydov, speaking at the signing ceremony, thanked Americans for their
help during Russia's ``hard times'' but expressed optimism that these were
largely over.
Speaking to reporters afterwards, he said 70 percent of Russian
industrial plants had been privatized and the country had a positive trade
balance. He expected 1995 to be a year of stabilization of the economy,
Davydov said.
But he said he was not interested in complete ruble stability now because
as the currency falls it enhances exports.
REUTER