The Czech Republic's prime minister announced today that his country is "ready to participate" in the Obama administration's altered missile defense program for Europe, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Oct. 21).
Jan Fischer offered his support of the new plan after he met with U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden in Prague. Washington next month intends to dispatch a group of officials for further meetings on the plan, Biden said (Karel Janicek, Associated Press I/Google News, Oct. 23).
The revised U.S. plan replaces a Bush administration initiative to deploy 10 long-range missile interceptors in Poland and a radar base in the Czech Republic. Under the new effort, sea- and land-based versions of the Standard Missile 3 system are expected to be fielded around Europe in coming years, primarily as a precaution against possible short- and medium-range missiles launched from Iran.
Components of the new system could still be placed in Poland and the Czech Republic, according to recent reports. Warsaw this week also expressed support for the Obama plan.
"As a NATO member and as a country which understands its commitments as well [as] the continuity of its foreign policy in this area, the Czech Republic is ready to participate in the creation of this new architecture," Fischer said at a press conference with Biden, Agence France-Presse reported.
Biden said he welcomed the Czech Republic's participation in the missile shield: "I'm very appreciative of the prime minister's statement to me that the Czech Republic is ready to be a part of that new architecture."
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the revised program had met with strong approval today during a NATO meeting in Slovakia.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that NATO ministers had "welcomed the plan" and that he anticipated it would be discussed further in December by member states' foreign ministers. He said he would like to see the upcoming NATO summit in Lisbon "agree to make European missile defense fully a NATO mission" (Jan Flemr, Agence France-Presse I/Yahoo!News, Oct. 23).
In a speech yesterday in Bucharest, Romania, Biden said the new missile defense program "will protect all NATO allies, including all Central European NATO members" and should offer "stronger, smarter and swifter defenses," AFP reported (Agence France-Presse II/Yahoo!News, Oct. 22).
The vice president highlighted in his speech the dangers posed by the spread of ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons technology, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
"We are confronted with new threats," Biden said. "We need a new vision [of] how we can tackle them, therefore the decision was taken to create a new missile shield system and that is why it is so important that the countries in Central Europe have their voice heard."
He added: "We are determined to provide the needed protection to our NATO allies" (Xinhua News Agency, Oct. 23).