Main focus of Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Missile defence under NATO control?

The US's plans to construct a missile defence shield with bases in the Czech Republic and Poland has been the subject of fierce debate since the Munich Conference on Security which took place in February. At the conference, Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened that Russia would retalliate if the plans went ahead. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has now proposed that the missile defence system be placed under the control of NATO.

Süddeutsche Zeitung - Germany

"A shield that fends off enemy missiles has long been the dream of the US military. Now this dream is causing real problems: Russia feels threatened and in Berlin, too, doubts are growing," Jeanne Rubner writes. Lieutenant General Henry Obering, head of the American Missile Defence Program's 'Missile Defense Agency', is currently trying to enlist support in Europe for the US's plans. "Talks are urgently needed because the US's plans to install a radar and missile system in Eastern Europe threaten to divide the continent... The missile defence shield is foreseen as a multi-phase system for intercepting missiles from 'rogue states'... The interceptor missiles, which form the centrepiece of the US's plans for Eastern Europe, are now the focus of discussion. If the plans go ahead, by 2011 a dozen such 'interceptors' [ground-launched interceptor missiles] could be stationed in Poland, along with a radar station that controls them in the Czech Republic. These facilities would expand the protective shield. Up to now there are stations in Alaska, Greenland and Great Britain." (14/03/2007)

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Népszabadság - Hungary

Péter Dunai warns that the dispute about the missile defence system threatens to divide Europe. "The projected missile system is once again exposing rifts within the European Community. There are even fears that it will trigger a new arms race. Moscow could decide to declare the INF Treaty, which eliminated all medium and short-range missiles and banned their production, null and void. Germany, which is dependent on Russian energy, is particularly sensitive about the issue: Gerhard Schröder would certainly have tried to avoid a conflict with Moscow at all costs, but even the Conservatives have yet to voice their support for the missile defence system. Critics fear that the Czech Republic and Poland could become the targets of terrorist attacks and are berating both countries for failing to consult their European allies before they began negotiations for the missile defence system with the US." (14/03/2007)

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Le Monde - France

The chronicler Daniel Vernet appeals for a re-think of dissuasion in order to adapt it to new threats and complete it with anti-missile defence. This is what the Americans have undertaken for some years now, provoking the scepticism of Europeans and the indignation of the Russians. Washington maintains that the anti-missile system is aimed against medium powers that are in possession of missiles and not against the major powers that are able to saturate and handicap it. But the deployment of this new system is a pretext for relaunching the arms race, contradicting all the declarations of the first year of the post-cold-war era. The only way to protect ourselves from this danger would be to internationalise anti-missile defence." (14/03/2007)

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