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Russia is using false arguments to encourage opposition in some European countries to U.S. plans to deploy parts of an antimissile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, NATO’s secretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer was quoted as saying by the UPI news agency.
In what is emerging as a test of will between Russia and the United States over plans by the Pentagon to deploy interceptors in Poland and a radar tracking system in the Czech Republic, de Hoop Scheffer said Russian concerns had little to do with reality.
“The way the Russian government looks at this issue bears no relationship to what is going on,” de Hoop Scheffer said in an interview.
Russia has said that one of its main concerns is that the system might be directed at Russia.
De Hoop Scheffer challenged that view. “You do not need to be an Einstein to know that was not the case. Nobody needs to explain to anybody that the stationing of 10 interceptors in Poland is going to influence or harm in any way the overwhelming Russian first-strike capability or any other capability,” he said. “The fact is that these interceptors cannot make a difference to Russian security. They are too close to Russia to threaten it.”
Russia’s other criticism is that the United States has not consulted the Kremlin about the installation.
“The U.S is not adopting a multilateral approach to this issue,” Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the International Affairs Committee of the Russian Duma, or Parliament, said in a briefing Tuesday. “This is damaging for NATO and the European Union,” said Kosachev, who was in Berlin to discuss missile defense with German legislators.
De Hoop Scheffer denied that the United States had failed to consult Russia. Washington has briefed the Russians in NATO along with NATO ambassadors and will hold additional consultations next month, he said.
Henry Obering, the U.S. general in charge of the missile defense agency that is overseeing the deployment of the shield, was in Europe this month and plans further talks with the Russians.
Kosachev acknowledged that there had been some consultations but said that they had failed to deal with the “conceptual” issues. “I don’t see how a system in Poland and the Czech Republic could be effective,” he said. “And having the system deployed so close to Russia’s borders represented a psychological threat.”
Fearing the issue could undermine her coalition of conservative Christian Democrats and Social Democrats and divide European opinion, Chancellor Angela Merkel said last week that the missile shield should be discussed inside NATO and the European Union. De Hoop Scheffer welcomed such discussions while rejecting any idea of interference in U.S. negotiations with sovereign nations.
NATO is considering a separate missile defense system to protect Europe, which alliance diplomats said could cost billions of dollars. So far, there have been no concrete discussions about location, finance or timetables. The alliance has just completed a feasibility study on such a system.
U.S. defense officials are concerned that if debate about a shield took place within NATO, it could be derailed by endless discussions and debate about who would control the system. “I do not think that the NATO road will slow down our American friends or the negotiations going on with the Poles or the Czechs. They are masters of their own agenda,” de Hoop Scheffer said.
Nevertheless, he said, he was pleased that Merkel wanted NATO to discuss the issue. “I said last month that NATO should as soon as possible have a debate on this issue,” he said. “After all, a system based on interceptors and radars in Poland and the Czech Republic which does not cover all of Continental Europe can never be a complete system. We have to see how we can link up a possible NATO system with the U.S. system.”
De Hoop Scheffer said that the U.S. system would cover 90 percent of Continental Europe at U.S. expense.
“Is it wise to say ’no thank you, U.S.?’ We are not going to have that,” he said. “Instead, we are going to have a system in which all the 26 NATO allies would spend billions of dollars. I don’t think that would be the most intelligent approach.”
The leadership of Germany’s Social Democrats has taken a different view, which Kosachev said he welcomed. Party leaders have said that the U.S. missile defense shield would encircle Russia and lead to a new arms race. De Hoop Scheffer said those concerns were groundless.
Russia would not be encircled, he said, and in fact faces the same threats as the European Continent.
“The threat perception is a real one,” he said. “The debate is basically of a political nature. Iran has launched a Shahab missile with a 1,000-kilometer range and it has test-fired a Shahab missile with an 1,800-kilometer range. If one agrees there is this threat, it is only logical that we have a debate about answering the question how we can defend ourselves against these threats which also affected Russia.”
Indeed, he said, he hoped that Russia would be interested in coming under the U.S shield or NATO’s own shield, which if member states agreed to go ahead with the project, would cover Continental Europe. Russia could even become involved in NATO’s plans to deploy by 2010 or 2011 a theater missile defense system for protecting troops, he said.
