BELGIUM: NATO approval not needed for missile defence shield in Easter Europe, says US

A US general says it will not wait for NATO approval to develop its missile defence shield in Eastern Europe to guard against attacks from Iran and denies the plan could irk Russia. The United States vowed on Thursday (March 1) to press ahead with a plan for a missile defence shield in eastern Europe to guard against attack from Iran, with or without the approval of NATO allies. The head of the Pentagon's Missile Defence Agency courted more Russian anger about the plan by saying Washington wanted to put a radar even closer to Russia in the Caucasus, in addition to installations planned for Poland and the Czech Republic. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said it was up to European countries to decide whether to take part in the project but German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung said it should be discussed by NATO allies and efforts made to ease Russian fears. Asked if the approval of all 26 NATO allies was needed, Obering told a news briefing, which cameras were not allowed to film, at NATO headquarters in Brussels: "We think it's important that we get the understanding and what I would consider to be as much partnering as we can do with our NATO allies. We are not looking for approval per se," he said. Russian President Vladimir Putin has denounced the U.S. plan as a threat to Russian National Security. Obering said he was "surprised" by the negative Russian reaction as the project was purely defensive and not aimed against Moscow. "This in no way, shape or form changes the strategic balance between the United States and Russia. In fact what you are talking about is ten interceptors that we would locate in Poland that first of all, from a numbers perspective there is no way that they can challenge the hundreds of missiles and thousands of warheads that the Russians have. The second is that even if we were trying to target those missiles, we can not catch those missiles from Poland. In fact, if we were trying to target Russian missiles we would not put the interceptors in Poland it is too close to Russia. They would be in a different location," Obering said in an interview after the briefing to the press. But said Washington was willing to have further talks the Russians and would be happy for them to inspect the interceptor missile battery in Poland and the Czech radar site if those countries agreed. "We want to be open and transparent," he said. Obering said he expected Boeing Co would lead the interceptor site part of the project in Poland, which would cost 2-2.5 billion US dollars, but there would be competition for contracts and up to 900 million US dollars of this could go to local firms. Obering said a radar site envisioned for the Czech Republic would cost around 500 million and 150-200 million US dollars of this could go for site construction by local firms. He said it would be useful to place another radar somewhere in the Caucasus, although this was not essential. Obering said that if discussions were successful and an agreement was reached this year construction at the interceptor site could begin in 2008, the first interceptors positioned in 2011 and the programme competed in 2013. Britain said last week it was talking to the United States about participation and agreed in 2003 to let it upgrade an early warning radar at the Fylingdales air base in the north of the country that would be a component of the system. "We are still in discussions with the United Kingdom they are participants in our programme and have been for quite a while. The door is not closed on that in terms of those discussions. We are certainly still talking to the United Kingdom; but the Czech Republic and Poland are the optimum locations for this. If for some reason, but we have every reason to believe that these discussions will be successful; but if for some reasons they are not there are other alternatives we can go to; but they are not the optimum," Obering said. Obering said Iran, accused by the West of pursuing nuclear weapons, already had missiles that could reach some NATO allies and by 2015 could threaten the United States. "We do believe there's an urgency to the threat," Obering said, adding that extending the shield would protect European countries as well as a portion of the United States. But he denied that placing a US missile defence site in Poland would influence Russia's decision to back out of the INF treaty - the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces 1987 agreement between the US and the Soviet Union to eliminate nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500 km "There is no link between a missile defense site in Poland and an INF Treaty withdrawal from the Russians that we can see. And so if there is something that the Russians are intent on doing that is something they are pursuing for other reasons," Obering said. Speaking on the sidelines of an EU defence ministers' meeting in Wiesbaden, Solana said it was "questionable" whether a missile threat currently existed to Europe, but added that all EU member states were free to contribute what they wished to missile defence but that Europeans did not consider establishing this type of mechanism "as Europeans" A NATO official has said that last November, NATO heads of state agreed to take note of an internal feasibility study on a NATO strategic missile defence system and such a project would not be ruled out by the proposed U.S. system _

ITN Source | March 2, 2007

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