US Close to Announcing Missile Defense Base in Czech Republic or Poland

Posted on: Apr. 12th, 2006 || Source: praguepost.com | E-mail Article | Print Article

Two ministries have independently confirmed that the country has been in talks with the United States for at least two years about building a U.S. missile interceptor base here.

Negotiations "are proceeding on the subject of the possibility of an American anti-missile base in the Czech Republic," Defense Ministry spokesman Jan Pejšek told The Prague Post April 5.

Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Vít Kolář said the project would be a boon to the economy, but that Parliament would have to approve any agreement before the United States could begin building a site.

The base would be the largest foreign facility in the U.S. missile defense program, and would be in a position to intercept long-range missiles launched from countries to the east, notably Iran, defense experts say. They add that placing a base here, or elsewhere in Central or Eastern Europe, is likely to meet with resistance from Russia, which views such a plan as a threat to its own weapons capability.

A report in The Washington Times March 24 quoted an anonymous senior defense official as saying the U.S. government is close to announcing plans to build the site in either the Czech Republic or Poland. The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) expects to make a decision about where to build the site as early as this fall, agency director Lt. Gen. Henry Obering said at a press conference March 20.

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