Germany calls for more NATO talks on U.S. anti-missile program

PAUL AMES

AP Worldstream
Mar 02, 2007

Germany’s defense minister on Friday urged more talks within NATO on
the U.S. plan to locate elements of an anti-missile shield in Europe
which has raised tensions between Russia and the United States.

"We should talk about the development of such a measure within the
framework of NATO," Franz Josef Jung told reporters on the sidelines
of a European Union defense ministers meeting. He said NATO should
also do more to ally Moscow’s concerns about the American plan.

The U.S. has formally requested to place a radar base in the Czech
Republic and 10 interceptor missiles in Poland as part of its plans
for a missile defense shield that Washington says would protect
against a potential threat from Iran or North Korea.

Britain is also in talks with the U.S. about the deployment. On
Thursday, the director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency,
Lt. Gen. Henry A. Obering, said Washington wants to base an
anti-missile radar in the Caucasus, a move likely to intensify Russian
concerns.

Officials in Azerbaijan and Georgia say they are not in talks with the
United States on the possibility of placing missile defense components
on their territory. The other Caucasus nation, Armenia, has close
military ties to Russia and would be an unlikely choice.

"There have been no negotiations, and we are not discussing these
questions either in a bilateral or multilateral format," said
Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Khazar Ibrahim.

Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili said Tuesday that Georgia
has received no request from the United States to allow deployment of
missile defense elements on its territory, and ministry spokeswoman
Nato Chikovani said that was still the case Friday.

On Thursday, the European Union’s foreign policy chief Javier Solana
said the EU had no plans as a bloc to participate in the development
of a missile shield, but said member nations were free to decide if
they wanted to join the project.

"We are not as Europeans concerned to establish a mechanism of that
type," Solana said. "This is for every country to decide." He
questioned whether there was an immediate threat to Europe from a
missile attack, but said it was something the EU should consider in
the future.

NATO leaders at a summit in November ordered further study on
"political and military implications of missile defense for the
alliance including an update on missile threat developments." A
preliminary report by NATO experts last year concluded there was a
missile threat and that it was technically feasible to develop such a
defense system.

However, while several allies are wary of pouring billions of euros
(dollars) into developing a NATO alliance system, the United States is
pressing ahead with its own missile shield plans.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress