Bush urges Russian participation in missile defence (Roundup)

By Mike McCarthy Apr 30, 2007, 22:33 GMT

Washington - US President George W Bush on Monday urged Moscow to participate in plans to deploy missile defence to Eastern Europe, saying that countering threats from 'rogue states' like Iran would benefit Russian security.

'It's in your interests to have a system that could prevent a future Iranian regime, for example, from launching a weapon. It's in Russia's security interests,' Bush said during a US-European Union summit at the White House.

Bush, standing with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said he has heeded her advice to increase high-level dialogue with the Russians to alleviate concerns about installing missile defence in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Bush said he would work with Russian President Vladimir Putin to ensure he does not see missile defence as 'antagonistic.' Putin has strongly objected to the plans and last week said he was considering suspending a European treaty to limit the size of conventional forces on the continent.

The United States has begun negotiations to station 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar site in the Czech Republic, a move Washington says is to guard against Iran's growing ballistic missile capabilities.

Putin, in a speech last week, warned a missile defence system on European soil would disrupt the nuclear deterrent and spark a fresh arms race. US officials have played down the concerns, saying such a small system would have no impact on thousands of Russian nuclear missiles.

The United States has offered to include Russia in the plans and share the technology, but Moscow has rebuffed the attempts aimed at deflating the tension.

The Pentagon's Missile Defence Agency hopes to have a limited system in place by 2011 and the complete installation by 2013 if negotiations with Poland and the Czech Republic can be quickly wrapped up.

US diplomats and senior military officers have travelled frequently to Europe in recent months to explain the details of how the system works to quell concerns that it could produce a Cold War- style arms race.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will visit Moscow in mid- May to discuss missile defence, and US Defence Secretary Robert Gates met with Putin last week in Russia, but appeared to have little success at softening the Russian position.

Putin said Friday he will consider issuing a moratorium on the Conventional Forces Europe treaty signed originally in 1990 and warned of the dangers invoked by missile defence.

'The increase of the threat of mutual harm to one another, and possibly of destruction, will grow many times over,' Putin said.

Merkel, prior to the joint meeting with Bush and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barrosso, said she would urge Bush to continue holding dialogue with the Russians.

'I will renew my call for the issues to be discussed together with Russia,' through the NATO-Russia Council, Merkel told reporters.

Merkel spoke with Putin on Saturday about the controversial missile shield. Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said the decision whether to install the radar site will be made by his country.

'It will be decided by the Czech Republic, and that either in the parliament, or by people in a referendum, and not by someone in Brussels or Moscow,' Topolanek said.