Putin Expands Missile Defense Proposal

After suggesting that the United States place its planned European missile defense radar in Azerbaijan, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday proposed that U.S. missile interceptors could be deployed to nations such as Turkey or Iraq, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, June 8).

The Bush administration has sought to install interceptors in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic.  Russia has objected strenuously to that plan, and Putin last week offered alternatives that could help alleviate its concerns.

“We are proposing to create a pool of European nations to assess missile threats through 2020 and agree on a joint action to fend off these threats,” Putin said in Germany, where he participated in the annual Group of Eight summit.

“In this case, there will be no need to build a radar in the Czech Republic and deploy missile interceptors in Poland,” he added.  “They could be deployed in the south — I’m speaking hypothetically since it’s necessary to conduct talk with relevant nations — possibly in U.S. NATO allies, such as Turkey.”

“Or it could be Iraq — what have they waged the war for?  There would be at least some benefit coming out of it,” Putin said.  He also suggested that sea-based platforms become the home for the interceptors.

An Iraqi official fired back at Putin, AP reported.

“We have nothing to do with the missile shield project.  Nobody asked us about this thing,” said government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh (Associated Press I/PR-inside.com, June 8).

The United States should delay development of its European missile defense components while it considers the Russian plan, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Saturday.

“It’s necessary for Washington, at a minimum, to freeze the deployment of missile defense elements in Europe for a period of study and negotiations on the Russian proposal,” Lavrov said, according to ITAR-Tass.

Lavrov also said the U.S. initiative could also undermine efforts to address Iran’s nuclear program, AP reported (Steve Gutterman, Associated Press II/Yahoo!News, June 9).

Russia’s willingness to discuss strategies for European missile defense “is a very important step forward,” White House spokesman Tony Snow said yesterday.

“Frankly, we are encouraged by the fact that the Russians now are talking about figuring out a way to provide a missile shield that will discourage rogue regime from loading nukes onto missiles and aiming them,” he said, AP reported.

“It’s important to sit down and listen to what everybody has to say,” he said on “Fox News Sunday,” noting that “deployment is something that’s not going to take place for a while.”

It remains to be seen “whether Azerbaijan makes any sense in the context of missile defense,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told AP on Friday.  “One does not choose sites for missile defense out of the blue,” she said (Associated Press III/International Herald Tribune, June 10).

U.S. President George W. Bush and Polish President Lech Kaczynski met Friday to discuss the missile defense plan, AP reported.  They agreed that it would pose no threat to Russia.

“The Russian federation can feel totally safe,” Kaczynski said, expressing strong support for the U.S. proposal (Jennifer Loven, Associated Press IV/The Buffalo News, June 9).

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