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CNN Live Sunday

Leaders of G-8 End Conference in Italy

Aired July 22, 2001 - 17:01   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: Leaders of the most industrialized nations plus Russia have reached common ground on some but not all issues of the summit that unfolded amid violent street protests in Genoa. Police there reportedly arrested 93 people this morning in a pre-dawn raid on buildings used as protest headquarters, they say. Up to 100,000 demonstrators took to the streets during the G-8 summit, protesting what they say are the negative effects of global trade.

But after the summit wrapped up today, there was a surprise move forward on the U.S.-Russia nuclear arms issue, after a meeting between President Bush and his Russian counterpart, President Vladimir Putin. CNN's John King has details of that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Progress after months of stalemate. The two leaders emerged from their second meeting in a little more than a month with an agreement for intensive negotiations on missile defense and nuclear arms.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are basically saying the Cold War is forever ever, and the vestiges of the Cold War that locked us both into a hostile situation are over, and we are exploring the opportunity to redefine the strategic framework for keeping the peace.

KING: Russia accepted a key U.S. demand, talks aimed at setting aside the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty, which forbids the research and testing critical to Mr. Bush's goal of building a missile defense system. In return, Washington embraced a key Putin priority: talks aimed at major reductions in U.S. and Russia's nuclear arsenals. That linkage brought a breakthrough.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We have come to the conclusion that two of these issues have to be discussed as a set, as one set.

KING: The U.S. strategic nuclear arsenal includes 7,200 warheads. Russia has about 6,000. Both nations have already agreed to cut back to no more than 3,500 warheads by 2007, but Mr. Putin, eager to save scarce Russian defense dollars, has talked of slashing the number to as low as 1,500.

BUSH: Let me start by saying how optimistic I am that it's -- about the possibility of reaching accord.

KING: Progress and talks with Russia stood in contrast to a G-8 summit stalemate on global warming. European leaders and Japan wanted the final communique to endorse the Kyoto treaty on climate change, but Mr. Bush blocked consensus. He says mandatory cuts in greenhouse gas emissions would punish the U.S. economy and promised frustrated fellow leaders he would soon propose an alternative.

The summit was marked by two days of demonstrations that sometimes turned violent, and some leaders complained all the attention overshadowed due commitments to fight AIDS and poverty in Africa.

TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: You measure the amount of coverage, the protests and Africa. Well, would it be a ratio of 10 to one in favor of the riot? I mean, the world has gone mad when that's the case. These are the important issues.

KING: Mr. Bush also voiced displeasure at the protesters, but left his first G-8 summit on a high note.

(on camera): The surprise agreement for negotiations with Russia should at least temporarily quiet the president's European critics on missile defense. Still, Mr. Bush remains under heavy pressure from key allies to give ground and break the stalemate over global warming.

John King, CNN, Genoa, Italy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRAZIER: We are going to spend some more time on this now talking with Ron Brownstein, a political correspondent for "The Los Angeles Times," who joins us from Washington. Ron, thank you for coming in today.

RON BROWNSTEIN, "LOS ANGELES TIMES": Hi, Stephen.

FRAZIER: This meeting was a surprise, this meting with President Putin, but the two leaders seem to be characterizing it in slightly different ways.

BROWNSTEIN: Well, I think there are some -- in my mind, some questions about where exactly this negotiation will go on a few fronts. First of all, President Bush has said repeatedly and his deputy defense secretary, as recently as a week ago, before Congress, that he envisions his pursuit of missile defense putting us in conflict with the Antiballistic Missile Treaty within a period of months, not years.

And you know, the history of arms control negotiations are not that they are real speedy exercises, and you wonder, are they saying they are going to delay whatever they want to do on the testing side until they have some sort of a broad agreement with Russia. I doubt that.

Secondly, senior administration officials have said here domestically within the last few weeks that they are not really looking for a successor to the ABM treaty, in terms of a very detailed road map of what is and what is not permissible. They want a much more broader leeway, so again, you have to sort of wonder, I think there are going to be question that are going to be asked when the president returns, what exactly is on the table here and what kind of a negotiation are they entering into.

FRAZIER: You have to wonder too what President Putin gets out of all this, this new linkage now, tying the work on the missile defense shield to reduction of nuclear stockpiles. There is a reduction already pretty heavily planned, they are going to cut it in half by five years from now.

BROWNSTEIN: Well, again, you know, we'll have to see exactly what they can and do not agree to on missile defense. What is clear is that the European allies and even Tony Blair, the prime minister of Britain, who has been the most conciliatory toward President Bush, have made clearly that they are really concerned about Bush moving forward unilaterally to abrogate the ABM treaty. They want whatever is done to be done with the approval of Russia.

So, there is a certain amount of leverage there for the Russian government in these negotiations, in that Bush has his own allies sort of leaning on him to be conciliatory toward their views.

Again, you know, it's one thing to start a negotiation. We will have to see if they can reach an agreement. But you know, it's worth remembering, this is the idea that President Bush laid out during the campaign. I mean, he did talk about both moving toward missile defense and in case of lack of negotiation, unilateral reductions in American nuclear arms. So, this is very much the vision that he laid out as a candidate.

FRAZIER: Still, though, it does make some European leaders queasy. I mean, they are very comfortable with this idea of deterrence, you know, the vulnerability to a reprisal strike deterring the first strike that has worked for 50 years.

BROWNSTEIN: Well, not only that, but you know, when I watched the protests this weekend in Italy, it did make me wonder what would happen if Bush does go ahead at some point in the next year and unilaterally abrogate the ABM treaty. I mean, in the early '80s, when Presidents Carter and then Reagan wanted to introduce the Pershing II missiles into Germany, you had enormous street protests in Europe, really gave rise to the nuclear freeze movement.

And I wonder, given what we saw this weekend over the somewhat abstract issue of globalization, whether you would not, in fact, see intense protests that will put a lot of pressure on these European governments if the American administration decides to pull out of the ABM treaty at some point.

FRAZIER: Did you get the sense as I did, Ron, that all of these protests are linked to what we are talking about now, that whether it's talking about missile defense or global trade, that perhaps the people in the streets were objecting to this idea of a new world order, which is really dictated by American ideas?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, you know, there really is -- as best we can tell from all of this, really, you know, virtually every meeting now faces this level of protests. It's a wide range of disputes and a wide range of protesters, you know, from sort of pacifists and church groups to labor groups to more anarchical elements of the movement.

So, yeah, I mean, to some extent, there is a basic objection to the attempt to integrate the world economy into a lower barrier trading block that would allow -- and in fact, does allow -- Western companies and Western values to move across the globe, and of course, the answer of the G-8 leaders is, this is the way to improve living standards. Look at what has happened in Asia, look at what has happened elsewhere. This really is the only opportunity for the poorest of the poor, and by protesting against that, you are protesting against their opportunity to make gains in the future.

FRAZIER: Ron Brownstein, thanks for those insights tonight. We will watch and see what's happening in the coming days, because that includes a meeting of the president with Pope John Paul II at the pope's summer residence.

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