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Archived News Articles: NMD and Foreign Policy
http://news.excite.com/news/r/010515/11/politics-arms-usa-china-dc
Beijing Rebuffs Washington on Missile Shield
By Paul Eckert Updated 11:45 AM ET May 15, 2001
BEIJING (Reuters)
"China's constant position is unchanged," Foreign
Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi told a news conference. "We
are opposed to the National Missile Defense because it
destroys the global strategic balance and upsets
international stability."
5/20/2001 from The Philadelphia Inquirer: (AP) http://inq.philly.com/content/inquirer/2001/05/20/national/MISSILE20.htm
Russia unmoved on missile defense
By Barry Schweid
ASSOCIATED PRESS
"I will be frank with you. The offered reasoning fails
to convince us and the majority of the world," Igor
Ivanov said before flying home. ...
Ivanov said Russia and most other countries were not
convinced "the potential threats require the dismantling
of the entire body of the agreements on disarmament and
the jeopardizing of nonproliferation regimes."
5/31/2001 from Marshall Brain's HowStuffWorks:
http://www.howstuffworks.com/space-war.htm
How Space Wars Will Work
by Kevin Bonsor
"...The U.S. Space Command doesn't hide the fact that it
wants to establish U.S. supremacy in space. In its
Vision for 2020 report, the Space Command points out
that military forces have always evolved to protect
national interests, both military and economic. The
report suggests that space weapons must be developed to
protect U.S. satellites, and other space vehicles, as
other countries develop the ability to launch spacecraft
into space. In 1997, Assistant Secretary of the Air
Force for Space, Keith R. Hall, said, "With regard to
space dominance, we have it, we like it and we're going
to keep it." ...
Currently, there are many international agreements that
have prohibited the deployment of such weapons into
space. One such agreement is the Outer Space Treaty of
1967, which covers outer space, the Moon, and other
celestial bodies. The one loop hole in this treaty is
that it doesn't say anything about the area just above
Earth, where most satellites are in orbit. However, the
treaty does prohibit placing nuclear weapons, or other
weapons of mass destruction, into Earth's orbit. But the
question is, are lasers and particle beams weapons of
mass destruction? The treaty further prohibits the
construction of military bases and fortifications on any
celestial body, including the Moon.
In November, 1999, 138 United Nations members voted to
reaffirm the Outer Space Treaty. Only the United States
and Israel abstained from the vote. Based on that vote,
which upheld the ban on weapons in space, it would seem
that space weapons will remain grounded for the time
being. So, for now, thoughts of Death Star-like weapons
and X-Wing fighters, battling it out thousands of miles
into space, will have to be put on hold. ..."
5/31/2001 from US News:
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/991108/space.htm
The new space race
BY RICHARD J. NEWMAN
Cover Story 11/8/99
"...But aggressive "space control," as the military
calls its quest for dominance in the sky, could
backfire. "The military view is, it would be the neatest
thing in the world to have a death ray in space," says
one Space Command official. "But will deploying it lead
to a war with somebody?"
Very possibly, some critics say. Virginia Democrat
Charles Robb, a member of the Senate Armed Services
Committee, argued in a recent article that developing
space weapons would be "a mistake of historic
proportions" that would trigger an arms race in space. ..."
http://www.senate.gov/~armed_services/statemnt/1999/990322rm.pdf
Statement of Gen. Richard B. Myers, USAF, Commander in
Chief, US Space Command, March 22, 1999
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010601/wl/japan_politics_tanaka_dc_3.html
Japan's Tanaka in Controversy Over U.S. Missile Plan
By Linda Sieg
Friday June 1 4:28 AM ET
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Foreign Minister Makiko
Tanaka -- in the midst of a bitter battle with
bureaucrats -- was at the center of a new controversy on
Friday after a report that she expressed concern about
America's missile defense strategy. ...
6/1/2001 from The Times, Detroit Free Press, & Reuters
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,3-2001181592,00.html
Allies rebuff Powell over missile shield
BY MICHAEL EVANS, DEFENCE EDITOR
WEDNESDAY MAY 30 2001
NATO allies refused to endorse President Bush's missile
defence project yesterday. It is the latest evidence of
division between the United States and Europe over the
"Son of Star Wars" plan. ...
http://www.freep.com/voices/editorials/enato1_20010601.htm
NATO Rebuff
It's the latest symptom of wrongheaded U.S. policy
June 1, 2001
The United States is getting awfully frigid shoulders
from formerly friendly international bodies. President
George W. Bush had best start building bridges, lest
this country find itself uncomfortably alone at the top
of the world. No amount of money or military hardware
can compensate for alienating allies. ...
6/1/2001 from Radio Free Europe:
http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2001/06/01062001113451.asp
Russia: Analyst -- U.S. Offer To Buy Russian Missiles
'Poisoned Bait In Mousetrap'
By Sophie Lambroschini
6/3/2001 from the Orlando Sentinel
Missile shield needs friends
By Michael Cabbage
SENTINEL SPACE EDITOR
Posted June 3, 2001
http://orlandosentinel.com/templates/misc/printstory.jsp?slug=orl%2Dasec%2Dmissile060301
6/3/2001 from Reuters:
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010602/pl/arms_rumsfeld_dc_5.html
Defense Secretary Begins European Visit Monday
By Charles Aldinger
Saturday June 2 10:24 AM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
will meet Turkish leaders in Ankara on Monday at the
start of a trip to seven European countries expected to
include talks ranging from military modernization to
missile defense. ...
6/4/2001 from Asia Intellegence
http://www.asiaint.com/#aib1
Monday, 4 June 2001
"...Officials from North Korea have told a US scholar
that the maintenance of a promised two-year moratorium
on missile testing is dependent on the United States
signalling the possibility of normalizing relations...."
6/4/2001 from smh.com.au - The Sydney Morning Herald
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0106/05/national/national2.html
Downer denies 'telling tales' over US defence plan
By Michael Millett, Herald Correspondent in Tokyo
Japan embarrassed the Australian Foreign Minister
yesterday by accusing him of threatening to tell the
United States about Tokyo's private criticism of
Washington's missile defence plan....
6/7/2001:
http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/06/06/rumsfeld.nato/index.html
Rumsfeld to push missile defense at NATO meeting
By Jamie McIntyre
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010607/pl/nato_rumsfeld_dc_5.html
US Shows Missile Defense Film to Skeptical Allies
By Charles Aldinger, Thursday June 7 1:34 PM ET
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld showed dramatic test films to doubting NATO allies on Thursday, unveiling for the first time details of a disputed Bush administration plan for defense against ballistic missiles. ...
6/7/2001 from AP at space.com
http://www.space.com/spacenews/spacepolicy/china_space_weapons_ban_010607.html
China Backs Treaty To Ban Weapons in Space
By Alexander G. Higgins, Associated Press Writer
posted: 01:28 pm ET 07 June 2001
GENEVA (AP) -- China proposed a treaty Thursday to ban
weapons in outer space because of the imminent "danger"
stemming from U.S. missile defense plans. Chinese
Ambassador Hu Xiaodi made the proposal at the 66-nation
Conference on Disarmament, the world's only
multinational forum for negotiating arms-control
treaties. "All space-based weapons and all weapons
attacking outer space targets from the earth are to be
prohibited once and for all," said Hu, who introduced
draft wording for the proposed treaty. There was no
immediate U.S. reaction, but Western diplomats said Hu's
comments only added detail to China's known position on
the issue. China, a bitter critic of U.S. plans for a
National Missile Defense system and the expectation that
it would involve deployments in space, has long called
for a treaty to prevent an arms race in outer space. ...
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