Turkish eye

The US may place another radar near Russia

Counting down the last months of its stay in the White House, the George W. Bush administration is in a hurry to push forward as much as possible the program for creating a missile defense (BMD) system . In addition to ten interceptor missiles in Poland and a powerful targeting radar in the Czech Republic, its components could also be deployed in Turkey. Recently it became known that the United States is negotiating with Ankara on the deployment of a mobile missile defense radar. According to the Austrian newspaper Press, the Americans wanted to install a radar in Turkey, since installations in Poland and the Czech Republic would not be able to protect the Balkans from a hypothetical Iranian missile attack.

Moscow has long tried to find out from Washington why the United States wants to build bases on Russia’s western borders to protect against non-existent Iranian missiles. Last year, Russia invited the Americans to jointly use the Gabala radar station (radar) in Azerbaijan and the Russian radar under construction in Armavir. However, Moscow formulated this plan as an alternative to missile defense bases in the Czech Republic and Poland, which did not suit the Americans . Now Washington has found a way to close the hole in the southern direction without Russian participation. Official negotiations on the deployment of a US radar station in Turkey are due to begin during the NATO summit in Bucharest, scheduled for April 2-4.

The new anti-missile radar is unlikely to convince Russia of the peaceful nature of American plans - after all, a high-resolution mobile radar in Turkey will be able not only to monitor Iran, but also to view the entire European part of Russia from the south, especially its southwestern and southern borders. The Russian leadership will have the opportunity to discuss this problem at the beginning of next week - on Monday, March 17, the heads of the US foreign policy and military departments, Condoleezza Rice and Robert Gates, will arrive in Moscow. They will hold negotiations with their Russian colleagues Sergei Lavrov and Anatoly Serdyukov in the “two plus two” format. The White House said Presidents George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin agreed by telephone last week to hold Russian-American consultations in Moscow that will focus on plans to deploy a US missile defense site in Europe.

Yesterday, a Russian diplomatic source told reporters that Rice and Gates would bring proposals discussed at previous two-plus-two consultations in October 2007 . Then, according to the source, the Americans presented “actually proposals on confidence-building measures that provided for the presence of Russian officers at missile defense facilities in Eastern Europe.” In this case “the radar in the Czech Republic would be concreted in such a way that it would not be directed towards Russia,” and “interceptors in Poland would not be loaded into mines.” According to the Russian side, this will not help create “a truly collective risk monitoring system.” However, Moscow supported these proposals: “This at least gives us the opportunity to see what the United States is doing unilaterally against the will of Russia and that it does not pose a direct threat to Russia at this particular moment.”

Deputy Director of the Institute of the USA and Canada of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Major General Pavel Zolotarev expressed skepticism to Vremya Novostey about the outcome of the upcoming Russian-American consultations in the “two plus two” format: “Consultations in Moscow are a process of clarifying the parties’ positions and searching for compromise options. So far, it appears that the Republican administration is doing everything to make it difficult for George W. Bush's successor in the White House to roll back."

The United States explains its intention to deploy missile defense elements in Europe with the missile threat from Iran, but Moscow considers this argument unconvincing. “Now the conversation will continue,” says Major General Zolotarev. He is confident that the Moscow meeting will also discuss the US intention to deploy a radar in Turkey. “This idea could mean the creation of a new positional area for the American missile defense system, and it is possible that it will cause a delay in the construction of US bases in the Czech Republic and Poland,” the expert suggested.

Victor VOLODIN