US offers incentives on missiles
Initiative invites Russia to link some systems
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is offering Russia a new package of incentives to drop its strong opposition to US missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic, including an invitation to begin linking some US and Russian antimissile systems, according to senior administration and military officials.
The package includes US offers to cooperate on developing defense technology and to share intelligence about common threats, as well as to permit Russian officials to inspect the future missile bases.
US officials said the initiatives were proposed at least in part at the urging of European allies, and reflected an acknowledgment at the highest levels of the Bush administration that it had not been agile in dealing with Russia -- and with some NATO allies -- on its plan to place defensive missiles and radar in Poland and the Czech Republic.
The initiatives include offers that are "deeper, more specific, and concrete" than any previous proposal for cooperation from the Bush administration to Kremlin leaders, according to one senior official involved in planning talks with the Russians.
The offers of cooperation will be laid out for Russian officials in the coming weeks in a series of high-level meetings being scheduled by senior US officials, in particular Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. If those talks go well, they will continue over the summer and fall between President Bush and President Vladimir Putin.
In military terms, the US initiative on missile defense will include an invitation "toward fundamental integration of our systems," said a senior military officer involved in the discussions. The concept of linking some US and Russian military systems for common missile defense would be at a level that exists in no other area of US-Russia military relations.
Despite a series of bilateral sessions and meetings under NATO sponsorship to explain the US missile defense plan, Putin and his inner circle have expressed deep resentment about it, raising serious concerns among some close US allies in Europe.
The German government has urged the administration to pull together the exact sort of initiative on missile defense cooperation and transparency that will be presented to Russia.
The administration has also heard complaints from other allies, including France, that it must do better at managing the relationship with Russia if the United States wants allied support for the missile defense effort, US officials said.
The offer would include an invitation to open a joint effort at "research and technical development" of missile defenses that could protect the United States, Russia, and their allies, a senior military officer said. 