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‘Shorter-range missiles threaten Europe’
Friday, October 23, 2009
BUCHAREST/BRATISLAVA: US Vice President Joe Biden said on Thursday that Europe was threatened by medium and short-range missiles and a new missile defence system would help protect it.
Biden was presenting a revamped US missile shield replacing a scrapped Bush-era project that would have placed 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar base in the Czech Republic to intercept long-range missiles from Iran. His one-day visit to Bucharest was part of a swing through eastern Europe designed to reassure Poland, Romania and the Czech Republic — all staunch US allies — that America’s commitment to the region remains strong.
The Obama plan would include SM-3 anti-ballistic missiles at a former air base in the Polish town of Redzikowo, the same site that was to host US missile interceptors in underground silos under the Bush plan.
Moscow perceives the new plan as less threatening because it would not initially involve interceptors capable of shooting down Russia’s intercontinental ballistic missiles, experts say.
Biden denied that the new approach was ‘to appease Russia’ at the expense of Central European countries. He said the US would never make a deal involving central European states without consulting them. Biden was to travel to the Czech Republic later on Thursday.
Biden also called on the countries of eastern Europe to use their experience to help former Soviet republics to build greater democracy, saying the US would support their efforts.
Speaking to an audience political leaders and students at Bucharest University, Biden paid tribute to the revolutions of 1989 that toppled communism in the former Soviet satellites.
‘The example you set...inspired the world,’ he said. ‘You can help guide Moldova, Georgia, Ukraine...Armenia, Azerbaijan and Belarus... Your leadership must be bold and your voices loud.’
Meanwhile, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico on Thursday categorically ruled out hosting any part of a US or Nato anti-missile system in Slovakia during his time in office. “As long as I remain the prime minister, I shall not agree to the location or deployment of any components of an anti-missile system on the territory of Slovakia,” he told reporters in Bratislava.
“I welcome the change of plans made by the US administration concerning location of the anti-missile shield in the Czech Republic and Poland,” he added, after talks with Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
His remarks come as Nato defence ministers met in Bratislava, with US Defence Secretary Robert Gates set to brief his allies on Washington’s new missile defence plans.
“The president and I discussed the leading role Poland can play if it chooses to play — and I believe it will, but that’s a decision made by Poland — on National Missile Defence within Nato,” Biden said at a joint press conference with Poland’s President Lech Kaczynski after Wednesday talks.
While initially satisfied with Obama’s move to drop the Bush-era missile shield, Moscow has recently expressed scepticism. Ahead of the Nato meeting in Bratislava, Slovakia, Rasmussen expressed hope that “we will be in agreement to Nato-ise missile defence”, by incorporating US capabilities under an alliance umbrella.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
