Czechs set to host US anti-missile base

Czechs set to host US anti-missile base

By Jan Cienski in Prague

Published: May 22 2008 22:57 | Last updated: May 22 2008 22:57

The Czech Republic will sign an agreement with the US within a couple of months to allow part of an anti-missile shield to be built on its territory, despite public opposition to the project, according to the country’s foreign minister.

“The basic treaty is ready,” Karel Schwarzenberg told the Financial Times, adding that Prague was now negotiating the conditions under which US troops could be posted to the Czech Republic.

The US wants to build an advanced radar in the Czech Republic and a base containing 10 missile interceptors in neighbouring Poland.

However, Mr Schwarzenberg acknowledged that the ratification of the treaty could run into trouble in the 200-member parliament, where the centre-right government of Mirek Topalanek, prime minister, has only 100 seats and expects to be one or two votes short of the majority needed to approve the pact.

“We will have a problem in parliament,” he said, noting that the small Green party, which nominated him to his post, is split over the issue. Polls show about two-thirds of Czechs opposed to the base.

Medvedev warns on deployment

President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia yesterday warned that his country would take “appropriate”’ measures in response to the US deployment of a missile defence system in eastern Europe, Bloomberg reports.

In his first foreign policy comments since taking office earlier this month, Mr Medvedev called the planned missile defence installations in Poland and the Czech Republic “a threat to Russian interests”.

US President George W. Bush and his then Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, now prime minister, failed to reach a missile defence deal.

Russia opposes US plans to install a radar station in the Czech Republic and 10 interceptor missiles in Poland to guard against attacks by Iran and other rogue states, saying they would threaten its security.

The US has offered Russian inspectors access to the sites.

Although Greenpeace activists have occupied an area in the Brdy hills southwest of Prague where the radar base is to be located, and two protesters have gone on hunger strike in protest, Mr Schwarzenberg was confident that the treaty would be accepted once the government explained its benefits.

However, the radar base is useless without being linked to interceptor rockets that are supposed to knock down incoming missiles. On this issue the progress on US-Polish negotiations is much rockier.

Warsaw has insisted that the US help modernise its military and also wants improved air defences like the Patriot 3 system to balance out the threats to its security caused by hosting the missile base, something that America so far is loath to do.

“We want the Americans to seriously involve themselves in the modernisation of our armed forces,” Bogdan Klich, Poland’s defence minister, said recently, stressing that Warsaw’s demands were “not excessive”.

Mr Schwarzenberg said that there was no possibility of the missile base being located in his country if the US-Polish talks fell through.

The missile shield is supposed to be used against attacks from “rogue states”, namely Iran, but Russia has strongly objected to the system, fearing it could endanger its own massive nuclear strike capability.

While stressing that the system was not aimed against Russia, Mr Schwarzenberg said that Moscow appeared to be reluctant to give up influence in its former satellites.

“For a former superpower, it is difficult to accept that countries which had belonged to its empire are now independent,” he said in interview conducted in a classic Prague cafe, where the hiss of an espresso machine almost drowned out the words of the hereditary prince who returned to his ancestral homelands in the Czech Republic after the fall of communism.

“They have a feeling they should have a say in what happens in this part of Europe.”

Mr Schwarzenberg said that Prague would never accept Russian troops being posted in the country to check on the base, but would be open to occasional inspection visits.

He also expressed concern over Moscow’s actions towards the former Soviet republic of Georgia, calling Russia’s decision to beef up its contingent of peacekeepers in the breakaway region of Abkhazia “provocative”.

Georgia has asked to be admitted to the Nato alliance, and while countries like Germany and France have been unenthusiastic, the Georgian request is to be reviewed in December.

“We should support Georgia,” said Mr Schwarzenberg. “Basically, the door to Nato should be kept open.”