Bush Hopeful on Negotiations With Russia

U.S. President George W. Bush yesterday expressed hope that Russia would accept his plan to place missile defense installations in Europe, the Xinhua News Agency reported (see GSN, March 20).

“The missile systems, defense systems, would not be aimed at Russia:  they would be aimed at nations that would … try to hold the free world hostage with a nuclear weapon,” Bush told Radio Farda.

“I’m optimistic.  I’m cautiously optimistic.  I don’t know whether we can find common ground.  But we are trying to find common ground, and that’s the first step, is to make the attempt,” he said.

Russia has been the loudest opponent of the proposal to place 10 missile interceptors in Poland and a radar base in the Czech Republic.  Moscow has characterized the plan as a potential threat to its strategic security and has threatened to aim nuclear-armed missiles toward Europe should it go through.

Washington has said the system would be developed to counter potential Iranian missile threats.  U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates were in Moscow this week to present confidence-building measures aimed at overcoming Russian opposition to the European shield (Xinhua News Agency I, March 20).

One of those proposals is to give Russian inspectors some access to the Czech and Polish sites.  Neither country has yet agreed to host the installations.

Czech Deputy Prime Alexandr Vondra said today, though, that Prague was preliminarily open to allowing up to two Russian officials to see the radar base, Xinhua reported.  The two nations would first have to come to some sort of agreement, Vondra said (Xinhua News Agency II, March 21).

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