US anti-missile plan becomes bargaining chip
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Mutual demand
Eastern European countries such as Poland and the Czech Republic, which have been caught in the middle during the super powers' competitions, have long tried to extract payouts from the big countries in the fields of politics, economy and security, analysts said.The signing of the US-Polish agreement on the anti-missile shield, for example, was accompanied by a declaration providing for the deployment of a Patriot missile battery in Poland.
The declaration also specified that by the end of 2012 a garrison will be set up in a location selected by Poland in accordance with its defense needs.
The US also promised that it would carry out military cooperation with Poland to protect the security of the country.
However, no more than one year since the signing of the American-Polish agreements on the anti-missile plan, Poland has asked for more from the US.
Poland said in June that it wanted the Patriot missile batteries in its country to be armed and stationed permanently.
In addition, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said that his country wanted the missiles "not only to arrive here armed, but also to be incorporated IT-wise into our air defense system."
Michael Mullen, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the installation of Patriot missiles in Poland would be possible after the signing of a Polish-US SOFA accord on the stationing of US troops on Polish territory.
But Mullen added that the missiles would be armed only for training purposes.
The same situation occurred in the Czech Republic. The Czech government has sought cooperation with the United States in the fields of science and technology in exchange for permitting the location of the planned US radar base on Czech soil.
The United States was to offer millions of dollars to fund scientific research in the Czech Republic, mainly in the armament industry, as part of the radar base talks between the two countries.
Complicated factors
The fact that the missile defense plan is related to the Iran nuclear crisis and US-Russia cooperation has added complications and uncertainty to the project, analysts said.
US President Barack Obama said in Prague in April that the missile defense system will go forward "as long as the threat from Iran persists."
He added that if the Iranian threat was eliminated, the driving force for missile defense construction would be removed.
A joint analysis by US and Russian scientists said "the missile threat from Iran to Europe is thus not imminent."
Moreover, if Iran were to build a nuclear-capable missile that could strike Europe, the proposed defense shield would be ineffective, said a report produced by the East West Institute, an independent think tank based in Moscow, New York and Belgium.
The urgent task is to seek a resolution of the Iran nuclear crisis, the report said, adding that the anti-missile plan needed more cooperation between Washington and Moscow.
Shen Yi, a Chinese researcher from Fudan University in Shanghai, said Russia and the United States have an important consensus on the issue of the anti-missile project.
The proliferation of ballistic missiles threatens the security of the world's big powers such as the United States and Russia, the Chinese analyst said.
Furthermore, the Obama administration faces pressure from hawkish politicians and Republicans, who have warned against concessions, particularly on missile defense, that America might have to make to conclude a new nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia, Shen said.
(Xinhua News Agency August 21, 2009)
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