Biden arrives in Prague to mend Eastern Europe ties

Oct 22, 2009, 17:24 GMT

Prague - US Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Prague Thursday, his last stop on a three-day mission to repair ties with Eastern Europe after the White House abandoned Bush-era plans to build US military bases in the Czech Republic and Poland.

The move by the US President Barack Obama's administration sparked anxiety across the region and disappointed Atlanticist Czech politicians who had, into a great extent, bet their political careers on supporting the US facility.

In a recent letter, prominent Eastern Europeans urged Obama not to sacrifice their region in a bid to improve relations with an increasingly assertive Russia, which fiercely opposed the Bush-era missile shield plan.

One of the signatories, former Czech president Vaclav Havel, told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty ahead of Biden's Prague visit that he expects him to 'articulate, in a new way, America's interest in this region.'

In Prague on Friday, Biden is set to meet Prime Minister Jan Fischer, the head of the country's caretaker government slated to rule until spring 2010, and President Vaclav Klaus.

Aside from defence issues, Biden and Fischer are to discuss energy security, climate change and investment and trade, the premier's office said.

Since arriving in Europe on Wednesday, the US vice president met with leaders in Warsaw and Bucharest.

He assured Poles on Wednesday that the US was committed to providing security to their country and would not bypass Warsaw when making deals with Moscow.

In Romania on Thursday, he backed Moldova, a former Soviet republic, in moving closer to democracy and the European Union and thanked Bucharest for supporting new missile shield plans.

Obama announced in mid-September that his administration was dropping plans championed by his predecessor, George W Bush, to build missile defence bases in Eastern Europe.

Under the Bush-era plan, which Russia rejected as a security threat, the Czech Republic was supposed to host a tracking radar and Poland a silo with 10 interceptor missiles.

Instead, Obama's administration decided to replace the planned stationary bases with a mobile system. US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates is expected to brief NATO allies on the new missile shield project in Bratislava on Friday.

Biden is scheduled to end his Eastern Europe tour on Friday evening.