Global Security Newswire

U.S Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Russia might be more amenable to U.S. plans for a European missile shield now that it has reassessed Iran's ability to strike targets on the continent with ballistic missiles, Voice of America reported yesterday (GSN, June 5).

Moscow has loudly opposed the prospect of missile defense installations in Poland and the Czech Republic, threatening to deploy short-range missiles in response to the perceived strategic threat.

"When I first met with [former] President [Vladimir] Putin and talked about this, he basically dismissed the idea that the Iranians would have a missile that would have the range to reach much of Western Europe and much of Russia before 2020 or so," Gates told U.S. lawmakers. "And he showed me a map that his intelligence guys had prepared. And I told him he needed a new intelligence service."

Russia has privately adjusted its position of late, Gates said.

"The Russians have come back to us and acknowledged that we were right in terms of the nearness of the Iranian missile threat and that they had been wrong," he said. "And so my hope is we can build on that, and perhaps the president's summit meeting with President [Dimitry] Medvedev, perhaps begin to make some steps where they will partner with us and Poland the Czech Republic in going forward with missile defense."

The Bush-era plan to deploy a missile shield in Europe has faced scrutiny at home as well, as the government seeks to eliminate nonessential or infeasible projects in the interest of limiting spending. Gates, however, has emphasized the importance of the shield.

"I think the administration is very interested in continuing to pursue this prospect with the Russians," he said. "And it may be that our chances are somewhat improved for making progress."

U.S. President Barack Obama has not stated formally whether he intends to move ahead with his predecessor's initiative. Gates declined to say whether the administration was prepared to pursue the program if Russia could not be brought on board (Al Pessin, Voice of America, June 9).

A senior Russian military official said today, though, that his nation is continuing efforts to overcome others nations' missile defenses, RIA Novosti reported.

"By 2016, we will significantly modernize not only missile systems but also command-and-control systems in order to improve their ability to overcome missile defenses and increase the survivability of delivery vehicles," said Col. Gen. Nikolai Solovtsov, head of Russia's strategic missile forces (RIA Novosti, June 10).