Russia, U.S. to meet on missile defense

MOSCOW, Oct. 9 (UPI) -- U.S. officials will be in Russia Monday for missile defense talks with their Russian counterparts, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Friday.

Russian negotiators will be led by Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov while Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Ellen Tauscher will head the U.S. delegation, the Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported.

"We hope to receive from the United States full and detailed information concerning the new approaches ... of (its) missile defense system," the foreign ministry said.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev Friday said the United States and Russia must advance strategic arms reduction.

"While dealing with non-proliferation, we must simultaneously deal with the limitation and reduction of strategic offensive potentials -- both carriers and nuclear warheads," Medvedev said on Russia's Channel One. "Today we have the chance to advance this process. We will be dealing with this. And I call on our American partners to do the same."

Medvedev said he thought Russia and the United States could reach a new strategic arms reduction accord before the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty expires Dec. 5.

"There is definitely a chance for the agreement, since the new U.S. administration has demonstrated interest in this issue," Medvedev said. Medvedev also said he did not want to see an expansion of nuclear weapons states recognized by the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.

India and Pakistan both possess nuclear arsenals, but they aren't signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Israel also is thought to have nuclear weapons.

"We are against the extension of the nuclear club. Otherwise the situation will get out of control," Medvedev said, stressing the necessity of working toward a nuclear weapons-free world. "The world without nuclear weapons is an ideal which should be on our agenda."