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Warsaw, Prague alarmed at US plans to scrap missile shield

Published 17 September 2009 - Updated 22 September 2009
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Polish and American officials discussed plans for a US missile defence shield on 17 September amid rising concerns in Warsaw that President Barack Obama will shelve the project in order to improve ties with Russia.

The previous Bush administration had pushed for the shield to protect against what it said was the possibility of Iran developing nuclear warheads to put on its long-range missiles. Russia sees the project as a direct threat to its own security. 

"The meeting with [US Deputy Secretary of State] Ellen Tauscher and other US officials has just ended. A statement will be issued shortly," Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Kremer told Reuters. 

He declined to comment further. Earlier, before the talks at the Polish foreign ministry, Kremer said Warsaw saw a strong chance that the shield project might be halted. 

"We know the review of the missile shield is not yet over and in 10 days Deputy Defence Minister Stanislaw Komorowski and I will go to Washington to find out. From different sources we hear there are serious chances the shield won't be deployed here," Kremer told Reuters. 

Obama spoke by telephone with Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer on Wednesday evening about missile defence, a spokesman for the premier said in Prague. 

The Wall Street Journal, citing current and former US officials, reported on Thursday that Obama would halt the shield deployment because "Iran's long-range missile programme has not progressed as rapidly as previously estimated, reducing the threat to the continental US and major European capitals". 

The Obama administration wants to "reset" battered ties with Russia so that the two former Cold War foes can cooperate on Iran, on fighting Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan and on reducing their vast arsenals of nuclear weapons. 

Central European alarm 

But Moscow's former satellite states in central and eastern Europe fear that any shelving of the missile defence shield project could mark a lessening of the US commitment to their security and could embolden an increasingly assertive Russia. 

In an open letter to Obama in July, senior figures from the region including Václav Havel of the Czech Republic and Poland's Lech Wałęsa urged him not to be swayed by Russian objections in making his decision on the missile shield. 

Poland and the Baltic republics, in particular, have been alarmed by what they see as Russian "neo-imperialism" in Moscow's dealings with ex-Soviet republics such as Georgia. 

The deputy head of Poland's National Security Bureau, Witold Waszczykowski, told Reuters on Thursday the abandonment of the shield plan "would be very bad. Without the shield we would de facto be losing a strategic alliance with Washington". 

For NATO member Poland, the timing of the report is particularly sensitive. Thursday marked the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of eastern Poland following a pact between Moscow and Nazi Germany, an event seen by Poles as "a stab in the back". "I hope this is just a coincidence," said Waszczykowski. 

(EurActiv with Reuters.) 

Positions: 

The Socialist  (S&D) Group in the European Parliament welcomed the USA's decision to abandon plans for a missile defence shield in Europe, and called for a new global security arrangement involving the EU, the US, Russia and China. 

Romanian MEP Adrian Severin, S&D group vice-president, described the missile plan put forward by the Bush administration as "a relic of a Cold War mentality driven by a spirit of confrontation rather than real concern for security". 

Severin said S&D members would follow up on the US announcement during a delegation visit to Washington in October led jointly by himself and fellow vice-president Hannes Swoboda. 

Commenting on hostile reactions from right-wingers in the Czech Republic, Severin said: "A change in approach should not be seen as US disengagement from Europe or lack of US concern for EU security. It should be seen as responsible, modern and comprehensive." 

Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer indicated that news of the US administration's change of plan had not surprised him. 

"We had been aware of this possibility since we learned that detailed analyses of the matter were being carried out by US defence specialists […] We were assured that cooperation with us will continue, and that the US considers the Czech Republic as one of its closest allies," Fischer was quoted by EurActiv Czech Republic as saying. 

Former Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek, who was a strong advocate of placing an anti-missile shield in the Czech Republic, said the US decision was "not good news" for the statehood, freedom and independence of his country. 

Topolánek regretted the Obama administration's decision and said: "Obama thinks we can get better results by negotiating with Russia and Iran than the Bush administration. I do not think he will succeed really," the former PM told Czech radio. 

On his website, former Czech President Václav Havel  regretted that the Czech Republic did not get a chance to "finish the game". According to him, Russia did not in fact care whether the US radar was going to be placed on Czech soil or elsewhere. 

"Russia is only trying to play silly games with us. It wants to see if we are scared. I am sorry that we cannot play this game until the end." 

The former Czech president was one of 22 European authors of an open letter sent to Obama last July, asking him not to drop the idea of an anti-missile shield in Central Europe. Such a step "could undermine the credibility of the US in the whole region," the letter read. 

Former EPP-ED MEP  and  current  chair of the Czech European Democratic Party Jana Hybášková saw the US decision as one of the recent failures of Czech foreign policy, claiming it was the result of the Czech government's collapse during its EU presidency. 

Background: 

During his election campaign, US President Barack Obama had been cool on a deal reached by his predecessor, George W. Bush, to put a radar in the Czech Republic and interceptor rockets in Poland to shoot down missiles fired by countries like Iran or North Korea. 

In the Czech Republic, the radar issue has taken on a very specific dimension. In the Czech Senate, lawmakers have warned that they will be unable to move on ratifying the Lisbon Treaty without the accompanying ratification of an agreement with the US to install the radar system (EurActiv 19/03/09). 

A ballistic missile launch by North Korea while Obama was on his first visit to Prague on 5 April had apparently changed the US position. Obama stated in Prague that he now wanted the Central Europe-based missile defence shield to be built (EurActiv 06/04/09). 

North Korea now appears to have a weapon that can reach US territory, allowing it to directly threaten its main adversary for the first time, analysts said. But the 'rogue' country, which tested a nuclear device in 2006, is not yet able to miniaturise an atomic weapon to mount on a warhead, experts said. 

Moscow strongly opposes the possible Polish and Czech installations as a threat to its security. After the election of Barack Obama as US president in November, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev threatened to base medium-range Iskander missiles in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad near the Polish border if the United States persisted. 

During Obama's visit to Moscow last July, press reports suggested that the USA and Russia were edging closer on divisive issues such as missile defence (see EurActiv 07/07/09). 

The absence of a high-level US representative to the recent commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the beginning of World War II in Poland signalled that Washington might have changed its mind about that country's involvement in the US anti-missile defence system (see EurActiv 31/08/09). 

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