Global Security Newswire

Russia and the United States plan next week to conduct talks on missile defense and nuclear arms control, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Dec. 8).

Moscow has frequently made its displeasure known with Bush administration plans to deploy 10 missile interceptors in Poland and a radar base in the Czech Republic. Russian leaders have characterized the effort as a threat to their nation's strategic security, dismissing U.S. assertions that the system would be intended to counter threats from Iran or other rogue nations.

"It is too early to forecast the results of this meeting. ... Everything depends on the new U.S. administration's assessment of the subject," Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told ITAR-Tass.

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama has offered no final opinion on the matter, but has said the missile defense technology must be proved to work before being deployed.

The meeting between Ryabkov and U.S. Undersecretary of State John Rood is set for Monday in Moscow, a Russian Foreign Ministry official told Interfax.

"A new round of talks on political and military questions including the missile defense shield and the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) will take place on Dec. 15 behind closed doors," the source said.

The treaty, which restricts the number of nuclear warheads and delivery vehicles to be deployed by both nations, is set to expire in December 2009 (Agence France-Presse I/Spacewar.com, Dec. 11).

"The president-elect and his team spoke about the future of strategic arms control during the election campaign," Ryabkov told VIP-Premier magazine. "We hope very much that signals will appear in the direction of controlled cuts in strategic offensive arms, and moreover in the crafting of a legally binding agreement, a new treaty to replace START I" (Agence France-Presse II/Spacewar.com, Dec. 12).

Meanwhile, an opposition party in Prague wants the Czech Constitutional Court to determine whether it would be legal to establish the radar base in the nation, the Associated Press reported.

The Social Democrats intend to request approval from the lower house of the Czech parliament to pose the question to the court. Such a move would delay a final decision on the radar, as it could take months for the court to return a ruling.

The Czech leadership has already signed off on the plan, as has the upper house of parliament, but opposition to the radar remains high among the populace (Associated Press/PR-inside.com, Dec. 11).

A senior French official yesterday questioned the value of the system, the Yonhap News Agency reported.

"We must not provoke Russia by thoughtlessly expanding the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) or the missile defense system," said French Minister of State for Defense and Veterans Affairs Jean-Marie Bockel, who argued that the shield would give Europe only "partial" defense against ballistic missiles.

French President Nicholas Sarkozy last month also said the missile defense installations would not augment European security (Yonhap News Agency, Dec. 12).