Bush, Putin to discuss Cold War treaties next month: report
MOSCOW (AFP) — US President George W. Bush and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin will discuss Cold War arms treaties and missile defence at a meeting in April, Interfax news agency reported Thursday.
The talks will include "the problems of missile defence, the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty and the question of short- and medium-range missiles," said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, cited by Interfax.
The meeting, announced by Bush on Wednesday, is to take place in the southern Russian city of Sochi after an April 2-4 NATO summit in Romania during which the controversial expansion of the organisation will be discussed.
Russia has said it is opposed to the NATO membership bids of Georgia and Ukraine, two former Soviet republics whose leaderships have sought integration with the Western military alliance.
Russia has also threatened to withdraw from a Cold War-era treaty limiting short and medium range missiles in Europe if the United States deploys missile defence systems in Poland and the Czech Republic.
In December, Russia angered the West by suspending adherence to the 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty, which regulates the deployment of armed forces across Europe and western Russia.
