KIEV -- The Bush administration is reviewing U.S. security policy, including deployment of a national missile defense. Washington's decision should be made easier by Ukraine's offer to help turn NMD into a reality.
NMD has faced opposition not only at home, but also abroad from Russia and, reflecting Moscow's criticism, many NATO members. However, Kiev is actively rebutting their objections.
Sergiy Pyrozhkov, director of the National Institute of International Security Problems, opened a conference last week on the ABM Treaty cosponsored by his organization and the Council of National Security and Defense of Ukraine, the equivalent of the U.S. National Security Council. He noted that when the accord was ratified in 1972 the two signatories "said it could be changed; how it will be changed just hasn't been decided yet."