NATO Backs Planned European Missile Shield

NATO today approved a U.S. plan to deploy missile defenses in Poland and the Czech Republic while encouraging Russia to end its opposition to the proposal, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, April 2).

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called the endorsement a “breakthrough agreement.”

“Now it is clearly understood in the alliance that the challenges of the 21st century, the threats of the 21st century, make it necessary to have missile defense that can defend the countries of Europe,” Rice told journalists at the NATO conference in Romania.

A statement released by the alliance “also asked Russia to stop its criticism of the alliance effort and to join in the cooperative efforts that have been offered to it by the United States,” she said.

The statement calls on NATO member nations ahead of the 2009 summit to examine methods of integrating the planned U.S. shield with future missile defense systems.

Meanwhile, U.S. and Czech negotiators have completed an agreement, set to be signed next month for deployment of a missile defense radar station in the European nation, Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwartzenberg announced.

Rice expressed hope that U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin can end an impasse over the missile shield in talks at the NATO summit and this weekend in Russia.  Washington has been attempting to convince Moscow that the missile system would pose no threat to Russia.

“We hope that we can move beyond that to an understanding that we will all have an interest in cooperation on missile defense,” Rice said.  “But we will see” (Matthew Lee, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, April 3).

U.S. President George W. Bush yesterday suggested linking Soviet-era military sites to a “threat-monitoring system,” possibly referring to Moscow’s proposal to incorporate an Azerbaijan radar station in the U.S. shield in place of the proposed Czech radar, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Nov. 5, 2007).

“We are inviting Russia to join us in this cooperative effort,” Bush said in Bucharest.  “This could lead to an unprecedented level of strategic cooperation between Russia and the NATO alliance” (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, April 2).

Back to top
About Newswire  |  Contact National Journal  |  Re-Use Guidelines © Copyright 2008 by National Journal Group, Inc. The material in this section is produced independently for NTI by National Journal Group, Inc. Any reproduction or retransmission, in whole or in part, is a violation of federal law and is strictly prohibited without the consent of the National Journal Group, Inc. All rights reserved.