Germany seeks consensus on U.S. missile shield
By Louis Charbonneau 39 minutes ago
BERLIN (Reuters) - The decision to build a U.S. anti-missile shield in eastern Europe cannot be a bilateral one, especially when the decision will have consequences for other European states, a senior German official said on Thursday.
Deputy Foreign Minister Gernot Erler said in an interview on German radio that Chancellor Angela Merkel would make this point when she arrives in Poland on Friday for a two-day visit.
"She will argue something very important, that this can't be done on a bilateral basis when the decisions will have consequences for other European states," Erler said.
Last week Polish officials, including the deputy foreign minister, said Warsaw needed a bilateral security pact with the United States because it was concerned that
NATO lacked the resolve to counter any serious threats.
U.S. Lieutenant General Henry Obering, director of the Missile Defense Agency, is in Berlin to explain to German foreign and defense ministry officials and German lawmakers the U.S. plan to install a missile battery in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic.
Moscow sees the planned U.S. shield as an encroachment on its former sphere of influence and as an attempt to shift the post-Cold War balance of power.
Erler said the missile shield plan has created problems that need to be discussed within the NATO military alliance. He said it was good that Washington has now acknowledged the need for serious discussion inside NATO.
NEW ARMS RACE, PROBLEMS WITH IRAN
He reiterated Germany's concerns that the missile should could spark a new arms race in the post-Cold War world.
Also, the decisions of nuclear powers Britain, France and the United States to modernize their nuclear arsenals are making matters worse for non-proliferation efforts, Erler said.
"That means three of the most important states are building up arms," he said.
Clearly referring to
Iran, which the West fears is developing atomic weapons under the guise of a civilian energy program, Erler said it would now be difficult to convince countries with nuclear ambitions to give up such programs.
"That makes it harder and harder to then argue that we want to have other countries ... desist from developing nuclear weapons," Erler said.
During a visit to Kiev on Wednesday, Obering proposed more talks to convince Moscow to accept the plan meant to protect Europe, and U.S. forces there, from missiles fired by what Washington calls "rogue states," such as Iran and
North Korea.
"We had a reaction from the Russians that was unexpected. They referred to changing the strategic balance between the United States and Russia. We disagree with this respectfully," Obering told a news conference in Kiev.
The interceptor missiles and radar, he said, would "have no effect" on Russia's thousands of warheads and their positioning was such that they would anyway prove ineffective against them.
Russia says the shield has no logic since Iran lacks a missile capability which could reach the United States. Moscow has implied the real purpose is to guard against Russian weapons and has promised countermeasures.
In Poland, an opinion poll by CBOS showed 56 percent of Poles oppose government plans to host the anti-missile shield.
Opinion polls in the Czech Republic, which has also been asked to host parts of the shield, have shown similar results.
(Additional reporting by Dave Graham)