U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates responded forcefully yesterday to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's threat to deploy short-range missiles near Poland should the United States field missile defense systems in that country and the Czech Republic, the New York Times reported (see GSN, Nov. 11).
“Within hours of the conclusion of the American election, Russian President Medvedev responded by threatening to place missiles in Kaliningrad, hardly the welcome a new American administration deserves,” Gates said during a NATO summit in Estonia. “Such provocative remarks are unnecessary and misguided.”
Gates again rejected Moscow's stand that the 10 missile interceptors set for deployment in Poland pose a threat to Russian security, describing them instead as a defense against a potential Iranian missile threat. The Bush administration also plans to establish a radar base in the Czech Republic.
“Quite frankly, I’m not clear what the missiles would be for in Kaliningrad,” Gates said. “After all, the only real emerging threat on Russia’s periphery is in Iran. And I don't think the Iskander missile has the range to get there from Kaliningrad. Why they would threaten to point missiles at European nations seems quite puzzling to me" (Thom Shanker, New York Times, Nov. 14).
State Department spokesman Robert Wood also expressed some exasperation after an unidentified Russian official said this week that Moscow could not accept the latest U.S. proposal aimed at increasing transparency of the missile defense sites, Agence France-Presse reported.
"It's probably a better idea to have [Undersecretary of State] John Rood there to discuss his proposals than having Russian officials talking about them in the press," Wood said. "We want to cooperate with Russia. But ... we need a partner."
Added an unidentified State Department official: "The Russians don't appear to be serious about discussions on missile defense." The official noted that Russia has so far offered only to hold talks with Rood on Thanksgiving Day (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Nov. 13).
Medvedev and U.S. President-elect Barack Obama did not discuss missile defense during a Nov. 8 telephone conversation, Time magazine reported. Obama has not yet declared whether he intends to move forward with the Bush administration initiative; a senior aide refuted a claim by Polish President Lech Kaczynski that Obama during a telephone conversation had said "that the (U.S.) missile-defense project would continue (Massimo Calabresi, Time, Nov. 13).
Meanwhile, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said he hopes that Russia will deploy Iskander missiles in his country as a countermeasure against the U.S. missile shield sites, the London Telegraph reported today. If that fails, Belarus apparently would simply seek to buy the weapons.
"Even if Russia does not offer these promising missiles, we will purchase them ourselves," Lukashenko told the Wall Street Journal. "Right now we do not have the funds, but it is part of our plans -- I am giving away a secret here - to have such weapons" (Adrian Blomfield, London Telegraph, Nov. 14).