WORLD
US: Russia offer cannot replace missile shield
(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-06-15 08:43
BRUSSELS - The United States told Russia on Thursday a Kremlin offer to
share a radar site in Azerbaijan could not replace US plans to site a
missile shield in eastern Europe.
"I was very explicit in the meeting that we saw the Azeri radar as an
additional capability and that we intend to proceed with the ... radar in
the Czech Republic," US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said after a
meeting of NATO and Russian defence ministers.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates speaks in Singapore June 2, 2007.
[Reuters]
Gates played down hopes of an early end to the months-long dispute with
Moscow over the shield proposal.
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He said he doubted experts would come up with a full appraisal of the
week-old Russian offer before July 1-2 talks between President George W.
Bush and Russia's Vladimir Putin.
Gates said Russian Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov did not respond
during the meeting to his remarks. Diplomats said Serdyukov had earlier
repeated that Moscow sees the Azeri proposal replacing the existing US
plan.
Gates said he welcomed the surprise offer to share radar data made by
Putin at a Group of Eight (G8) meeting last week.
"I repeated our willingness to work and partner with Russia on missile
defence," he said.
The United States plans to use interceptors in Poland and radar in the
Czech Republic, a configuration Washington says is ideal for blocking any
missile, particularly from Iran, heading towards the United States and
most of Europe.
Russia has said the US scheme is a threat to its own security and that
the proposed US bases on its doorstep could be converted to more
dangerous uses in the future.
Washington has said it wants to hold expert-level talks to explore the
possibilities of the Russian offer of the Azeri radar, but Gates said he
was "sceptical" there would be any conclusions before Bush welcomes Putin
in Maine next month.
'Tacit endorsement'
Tension between Washington and Moscow alarmed European NATO members,
particularly after Putin threatened to target missiles on Europe if
Washington went ahead with building the shield.
The project has also raised concerns it will split NATO into those who
would be covered by the shield and those not. Analysts said Turkey,
Greece, Bulgaria and Romania would not get full protection.
In what US officials hailed as a tacit endorsement of the US plan, NATO
defence ministers agreed to explore building a "bolt-on" anti-missile
system that would plug those gaps.
The study should be completed by February. NATO officials hope the
alliance can agree by a summit in April in Romania to start work on such
a system, which would deploy complementary interceptors to cover
southeast Europe.
"We do believe that (our) concerns have been addressed and understood,"
Bulgarian Defence Minister Defence Veselin Bliznakov told Reuters.
"What we just need is the US (missile shield) and the one which would be
added by NATO."
A senior US official, who requested anonymity, said: "What you see here
is allies agreeing to adapt NATO's work to the reality that there will be
a (US) long-range system."
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