Senior US Official Heads To Canada For NBD Talks As Ottawa Signals Support

Senior US Official Heads To Canada For Missile Talks As Ottawa Yields

"We're not going out to collect a bunch of pelts on missile defense," spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters as US undersecretary of state for political affairs Marc Grossman (pictured) prepared to leave for talks in Ottawa. AFP Photo by Belga Etienne Ansotte

Washington (AFP) May 14, 2001
A senior US official heads to Canada this week for talks on controversial plans for a missile shield, the State Department said Monday as Ottawa signalled it would support the project.

Marc Grossman, the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Washington's third-highest ranking diplomat, is to meet officials in the Canadian capital on Tuesday, spokesman Richard Boucher said.

Grossman's mission is part of a multi-pronged effort to explain the US desire for a national missile defense (NMD) system that last week saw a variety of senior officials travel the globe to various capitals, he said.

"We look forward to good and serious consultations" with the Canadians, Boucher said, adding, however that the purpose of the trip was not to win the approval of foreign countries for the plans.

"We're not going out to collect a bunch of pelts on missile defense," Boucher told reporters.

"All of these consultations are based on the premise that we want to talk to people while our ideas were under review, while our thoughts are being formulated," he said.

The State Department said on Friday that a senior official would be traveling to Canada this week to discuss NMD, but had not identified who that person would be.

Boucher's announcement that it would be Grossman, just back from several European capitals, came as a Canadian newspaper reported that Ottawa was ready to back NMD despite considerable skepticism from other US allies.

The National Post quoted an unnamed senior official as saying the Canadian government sees more benefits than problems with the proposal, especially a companion plan to drastically slash the US nuclear arsenal.

"In the end Canada will support the United States," the newspaper quoted the official as saying.

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