Agence France-Presse,
WASHINGTON: Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek insisted Feb. 25 that a planned U.S. missile defense radar in his country is crucial for security and accused Russia of vying for influence by opposing the scheme.
The Russians “will probably not like to give up their sphere of influence over central Europe, which I believe personally is the main reason of their protest against the missile defense system stationing in our country,” Topolanek said via an interpreter after making a speech at the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank.
Topolanek said Feb. 25, ahead of his two-day visit to Washington, that negotiations on the radar site were almost complete and last-minute differences should be ironed out during talks Feb. 27 with President Bush, with the agreement likely to be signed some time later.
“This should never happen again, that we … become a puppet in the hands of a foreign military” power, he said, speaking in English in his speech Feb. 26. “We do not want to go to a group of countries which have to ask Russia for permission if they want to ensure their own defense.”
The planned radar in the Czech Republic is part of a wider missile defense system the U.S. says is to protect it and its allies from rogue states such as Iran. It also plans to put 10 interceptor missiles in neighboring Poland.
The plans have enraged Russia, which sees the installations as a threat to its security that harks back to the Cold War, and have aroused some domestic opposition in the Czech Republic.
Topolanek blamed this opposition on “very skillful propaganda of the Russian Federation.”
“Russia is not threatened in any military sense, but it feels threatened in its newly found power politics. It sees a chance to bring confusion among our allies through harsh rhetoric,” he said. “This is not an issue of one radar installation; … it primarily concerns an utterance of free will to defend ourselves,” he said in the Feb. 26 speech.
“Our civilization will end if we lack the will to defend ourselves.”
The Czech Republic and Poland, both former Warsaw Pact countries, joined the U.S.-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1999, a decade after the collapse of the communist bloc.
Topolanek and Bush were scheduled to meet Feb. 27, but the final agreement is not due to be finalized for some time.
“They're certainly going to talk about it, but there is still an agreement to be signed, … and the agreement will also have to be ratified by the parliament in the Czech Republic,” Czech embassy spokesman Daniel Novy said Feb. 26. “But it's definitely going to be one of the major issues they're going to talk about tomorrow.”
The U.S. is continuing talks with Russia aimed at easing its hostility to the plan, and Russia's deputy premier Sergei Ivanov said that Moscow will keep talking with Washington after his meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates this month.
U.S. and Czech government officials on Feb. 26 also signed a political document that could help secure visa-free travel for Czech citizens to the United States later this year, Novy said.
Topolanek hailed the visa initiative, in a speech that stressed the security importance of the “transatlantic alliance.”
“Without [the alliance's] existence, Europe's security would be greatly endangered.”
