Reuters reported on April 27th that, according to NATO sources, Russia is questioning whether there is any real threat requiring a U.S. missile shield, while its own plan for countering such a perceived risk remains mostly theory. Igor Sergeyev, now a security adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, has emphasized the need to create a system of joint expert assessments to determine whether threats actually exist. Sergeyev has said that Russia's current missile defense proposal for Europe is a basis for assessing whether threats exist at all, and their degree and scale if they do.

According to the New York Times (April 29), the Chinese military is looking for low-cost ways to neutralize U.S. missile defense systems, including attacks on the systems themselves. Rather than build an expensive nuclear force to overwhelm the U.S., according to the PRC's top arms control official, China may build an inexpensive means of attacking US radar and communications networks. The official, Sha Zukang, also says that President Bush has offered to open a strategic dialogue with Beijing.

On May 1, in a major policy address, President George W. Bush unveiled his long-awaited missile defense approach. In a speech broadcast by CNN, Bush called the current international system "less certain" and "less predictable" than the Cold War era, and stressed the need for the world to catch up with Twenty First-century realities of missile threats. While emphasizing that more work still needs to be done, the President revealed that near-term options allowing the United States "to deploy an initial capability against limited threats" did exist, and that the U.S. will move ahead to with missile defense plans in order "to protect our own citizens and our own allies and friends." The President also outlined his plan to dispatch Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, and Deputy National Security Advisor Steve Hadley to Europe, Canada, Asia and Australia to conduct "real" consultations with "Allied" countries on missile defense.

Reactions to the President's defense plan were varied. London has "welcomed" but not endorsed President Bush's proposal. In a statement to reporters carried by the Agence France Presse (May 2), Prime Minister Tony Blair said only that England shares U.S. concerns about vulnerability to missile attack, and that it welcomes President Bush's determination to consult with allies "on the future of missile defence." The President's missile defense plans were also welcomed by NATO Secretary General George Robertson, who especially praised Bush's commitment to consultations. As the BBC reported on May 2nd, Robertson publicly stated that "The President is right to focus on these new challenges, and I welcome his commitment to close consultations with the allies." Denmark, where some radar facilities for the defense system might be located, also signaled a generally positive attitude. Sweden, however, has called for the U.S. to stop its missile defense initiative and asked China, India and Pakistan -- but not Russia -- to end their ballistic missile programs, MSNBC reported on May 2nd. Meanwhile, the "Shanghai Five" - Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan - issued a joint declaration denouncing U.S. plans to build a missile defense system. Notably, the declaration, which was carried in the PRC's government-controlled China Daily on May 2nd, predates President Bush's May Day missile defense speech.

President Putin, in a telephone conversation with President George W. Bush following the latter's May 1st speech unveiling American missile defense plans, emphasized cooperation without departure from the architecture of "treaties created in the last thirty years," rian.ru reported on May 2nd. Such a departure is precisely what Bush announced during his speech, in which he stated that the 1972 ABM Treaty, which Moscow considers the "cornerstone" of strategic stability, "does not recognize the present, or point us to the future," but simply "enshrines the past." Moscow, however, has officially interpreted Bush's speech as not implying abandonment of the ABM Treaty, and says it hopes for a productive Russian-American summit this summer and welcomes unilateral American nuclear arsenal reductions.

Despite Moscow's positive spin on American missile defense plans, however, the Agence France Presse reported on May 3rd that Russia has tested a new missile defense rocket at the Sary Shagan military range in Kazakhstan, in an effort to upgrade its defense systems. Russia has publicly aired its plans to develop a counter-NMD or a "Euro-NMD" as an alternative to Washington's proposed system.