Translated material
Radar is the law
Condoleezza Rice to sign missile defense agreement with Czech Republic
Today Prague welcomes US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The guest must sign a bilateral agreement on the deployment of an American radar in the Czech Republic as part of the missile defense system (ABM). In the fall, the document will go to the Czech parliament for ratification.Negotiations on the construction of an American radar station (radar) in the Czech Republic have been ongoing since March 2007. The military base will be located at the Brdy training ground, approximately 90 km southwest of Prague. An area of 4 square meters is already being prepared for the radar. km. According to the bilateral document, Washington undertakes to protect the Czech Republic from possible terrorist attacks.
Radar for the Czech Republic is an expensive project. The system itself is now operated by the Americans on the Pacific atoll of Kwajalein (Marshall Islands). Dismantling the radar, its delivery to the Czech Republic, assembly and testing will cost the United States $125 million. Annual operation of the radar will cost the Pentagon $90 million. Another $40 million per year will be spent on the maintenance and servicing of an already built facility. This part of the financing will be covered by the Czech Republic; the service personnel will range from 150 to 250 American troops.
Washington plans to deploy ten interceptor missiles in Poland by 2013, and in the neighboring Czech Republic in 2011 to install a radar for their guidance under the pretext of the need to protect itself from Iranian and North Korean ballistic missiles. Russia is against it. She sees the US missile shield as a threat to her own security. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev confirmed yesterday at the G8 summit in Japan that, despite lengthy Russian-American negotiations, differences between Moscow and Washington on the missile defense issue remain.
Disagreements also persist between the United States and Poland over the price of installing interceptor missiles. “Nevertheless, an agreement on the installation of a missile defense radar in the Czech Republic in the absence of an agreement with Warsaw on the deployment of anti-missile defenses is quite natural. The radar will operate and monitor space at a distance of 5 thousand km and without missiles. But deploying missiles without a radar would look stupid,” Alexander Khramchikhin, head of the analytical department at the Institute of Political and Military Analysis, told Vremya Novostey. “As for Poland, it is possible that negotiations will continue even after the current US President George Bush leaves the political arena. In any case, the outcome of the bargaining will depend on mutual concessions from Washington and Warsaw,” said VN’s interlocutor. The Polish side is demanding that it be provided with modern American Patriot air defense systems and several billion dollars for the modernization of the national army.
Yesterday, the Polish Foreign Ministry confirmed: “The negotiations are not over, and they will continue. We are even ready to agree to US proposals if they minimally satisfy our demands.” Just in case, Warsaw is already trying to probe what will happen to the anti-missile missiles after the change of head of the White House. Yesterday in Washington, Condoleezza Rice met with Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, who specially arrived in the United States to discuss the issue of interceptor missiles. The program of Sikorsky's stay in Washington includes a meeting with Republican presidential candidate John McCain. And the day before he was going to discuss this topic by phone with Democratic candidate Barack Obama. Yesterday, Warsaw's Gazeta Wyborcza reported that Polish President Lech Kaczynski also "intends to meet with Obama's adviser to discuss what will happen to the missile defense project if the Democratic candidate is elected president of the United States."
“Poland is interested in the negotiations with the United States ending successfully. It is possible that Warsaw moved out of fear that Lithuania could take its place. Such conversations are ongoing, but I do not believe that the Americans will be satisfied with such an alternative,” noted Mr. Khramchikhin. “Washington has not sent Lithuania an official proposal to begin negotiations on missile defense. The talk that Lithuania will replace Poland is most likely inspired by Washington in order to force Warsaw to moderate its financial appetites,” the VN expert believes.