BELGIUM: US reassures allies over planned missile shield system at talks at NATO, but fails to allay Russian suspicions

The United States has reassured its NATO allies over its planned missile shield system, but failed to allay Russian suspicions that the shield was a strategic threat to Moscow. The United States reassured allies over its planned missile shield system at talks at NATO on Thursday (April 19), but failed to allay Russian suspicions that the shield was a strategic threat to Moscow. The meeting of NATO and Russian officials was part of a U.S. bid to sooth European concerns and calm Russian anger at the plan to deploy 10 interceptors in Poland and radar in the Czech Republic by 2012 to preempt threats from states such as Iran. President Vladimir Putin has said the U.S. plan encroaches on Russia's security interests. The project has also jangled nerves in Europe, notably in Germany, and U.S. officials concede they could have better explained their aims. But in a possible sign that European capitals are gradually coming round to a project they cannot veto, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said allies raised no objections to the project during the talks in Brussels and even went further by agreeing that any future NATO shield should complement the U.S. one. Separately, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov ridiculed the U.S. plan and ruled out the prospect of Russia agreeing to a U.S. offer this week of cooperation, such as by sharing early warning data or conducting joint exercises. U.S. President George W. Bush will likely visit the Czech Republic in June to drum up support, the Czech government said on Thursday. Czech sources said the visit would be on June 4-5, although it has yet to be confirmed by Washington. U.S. officials sought to address a key European concern that the U.S. bilateral approach would split the continent into those covered by the shield, and those not. Russian envoy to NATO Konstantin Totksy said Moscow disputed the level of the threat facing Europe, the logic for siting shield elements in eastern Europe and feared the United States would in future deploy more rockets. But, in apparent contrast to Ivanov, he said Russia was ready to look at cooperating with the United States.

ITN Source | April 20, 2007

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