NATO chief considers US bases in Central Europe bilateral matter

Mar 5, 2007, 18:15 GMT

Prague - The talks about Central European bases for a planned US missile shield are a bilateral matter, NATO's Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told reporters after meeting Czech premier Mirek Topolanek in Brussels on Monday, CTK reported.

NATO's top man assured the Czech prime minister that the alliance will discuss the US military installations in Central Europe in coming weeks and months.

According to CTK, the secretary general said that the talks between the US and two Central European NATO members speeded up the alliance's talks about its own territorial anti-missile defence.

The NATO Riga summit last year entrusted Scheffer with opening a debate on the alliance's missile shield, he said. However, Scheffer added he is not able to estimate how long that will take.

While Poland officially agreed to further talks on placement of a US military installation on Polish soil in late February, the Czech government plans to do so by the end of March.

According to earlier statements by Topolanek and Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs Alexandr Vondra, the Czech Republic is expected to enter into further talks with US about the radar station.

However, the deployment of foreign troops on Czech soil has to be approved by both chambers of the Czech parliament and the Czech president.

The junior coalition Greens, whose six votes in the lower house are needed in order for the deployment to pass, demand that the US radar station be placed under a NATO command in the future.

Unless the US guarantees this in an international treaty, the party's members of parliament will not vote for the deployment, said Ondrej Liska, a Green MP and deputy chairman for foreign affairs.

The Czech coalition is currently negotiating whether to include the NATO condition in its official response, Liska told Czech TV on Sunday.

While the senior coalition Civic Democratic Party and the junior Christian Democrats support the US radar base in the Czech Republic, senior opposition Social Democrats said they may change their negative stance if the radar base were part of a NATO defence system.

According to press reports, the vote in parliament will take place around year's end or early next year.

The radar facility is part of the controversial US missile defence system dubbed 'Son of Star Wars.' The radar and tracking station would be in the Czech Republic and the actual missile interceptor based in Poland.

The US officially asked the Czech Republic to host the radar base in a military zone, 50 kilometres south-west of Prague, after the centre-right cabinet passed a confidence vote on January 19.

The social democratic and communist parliamentary opposition opposes the base and are seeking a referendum on the matter unlike coalition parties.

According to public opinion polls, a majority of Czechs have so far opposed the radar station. Russia has fiercely criticised the planned US missile base in the Czech Republic and Poland.