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US taps Lithuania as alternative to Poland for missile shield plan
Warsaw (AFP) June 19, 2008 The United States has begun to sound out Lithuania as a possible alternative host for a controversial missile shield as talks with Poland on the project grind on. After a Polish minister said Tuesday that talks between Washington and Vilnius were indeed underway, US officials confirmed that chief missile defence negotiator John Rood had visited Lithuania, stressing all the while there were in actual fact no negotiations with the ex-Soviet Baltic state. Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell, however, made it clear Poland was not the only option the United States had to host the shield. "There are several European nations that could host the (missile) interceptors and Lithuania is one of them," Morrell told reporters in Washington Tuesday. The United States wants to install an anti-ballistic missile shield in northern Poland and an associated high-powered tracking radar in the neighbouring Czech Republic by 2011-13 to counter the alleged threat of attacks by so-called "rogue" states, notably Iran. Seeing it a major security threat, Russia is vehemently opposed. Lithuania on Wednesday denied any negotiations with Washington, but left the door open. "Lithuania would consider the possibility of participating in the anti-missile shield if asked. We should consider all the pluses and minuses," Lithuanian Defence Minister Juozas Olekas told Lithuanian public radio. He however played down any immediate prospect of NATO member Lithuania stepping in to replace alliance ally Poland, adding: "We believe that the agreement with Poland will be made". Polish officials, however, are convinced the United States has already held preliminary consultations with Lithuania, a former Soviet republic which became a NATO ally in 2004. "We know there are talks," Poland's chief missile defence negotiator, Deputy Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski, told AFP. Waszczykowski believes they are a "tool of pressure" to speed-up the negotiations with Poland, which have dragged on for 13 months so far, in order to strike a deal before US President George W. Bush leaves office early next year. "The United States know time is an issue," Waszczykowski said, adding policy decisions will effectively be frozen as the US presidential campaign comes into full swing this fall. In April the United States concluded the deal for the radar base in the Czech Republic, but talks with Poland have been slowed by Warsaw's demands for substantial aid to modernise its armed forces. Begun in May 2007, talks advanced quickly under conservative Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski. But after taking power in November last year, the liberal administration of Prime Minister Donald Tusk quickly raised the stakes, demanding more than the 47 million dollars (30 million euros) in military aid President Bush promised Poland would receive by 2009. Worried by Russia's threat to point its missiles at Poland should it host the shield, Warsaw wants the United States to provide substantial cash to upgrade the Polish armed forces and finance a Patriot 3 or THAAD-type air defence system. "If the United States believes that installing the missile shield will not have an important impact on Poland's security, it will be difficult for us to convince Poles (to accept the missile shield)," Waszczykowski said. But an alternative location for the missile shield in Lithuania would be problematic. The 3.4-million strong Baltic state which became a Soviet republic after World War II, only regained independence as the USSR crumbled in 1991. Planting the shield on Lithuanian soil, directly adjacent to the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, would likely exacerbate Moscow's fears the system is aimed against Russia -- something Washington has repeatedly denied. "It seems that someone wants to take little steps to cross the red line which marks the boundaries of our national security," Konstantin Kossatchev, head of the Russian parliament's foreign affairs committee, told AFP Wednesday. "We are quite likely becoming enemy number one or two of Russia," Lithuanian political analyst Kestutis Gernius observed. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Share This Article With Planet Earth
Related Links Learn about missile defense at SpaceWar.com Learn about nuclear weapons doctrine and defense at SpaceWar.com All about missiles at SpaceWar.com Learn about the Superpowers of the 21st Century at SpaceWar.com
Outside View: BMD base woes -- Part 1
Moscow (UPI) Jun 19, 2008 U.S. President George W. Bush's missile defenses are dying with his presidency, but they might not rest in peace. |
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