NATO’s chief yesterday expressed the Western military alliance’s determination to move ahead with building an operational missile defense system, following what he called its first successful comprehensive test.
After a NATO summit in Chicago later this month, “we will continue to expand the system toward full operational capability,” NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen wrote in an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal.
“The alliance has already developed an initial command-and-control system to link the US assets with sensors and interceptors provided by European allies,” Rasmussen wrote. “I expect more announcements in the months and years ahead.”
NATO leaders are hoping to declare the start of an “interim capability” for the missile shield at the summit in Chicago on Sunday and Monday next week.
According to Rasmussen, this “interim capability” will provide the alliance with a limited but operationally meaningful and immediately available capability against a ballistic-missile threat.
“It is the first step, but a real step, toward providing full coverage for all NATO populations, territory and forces in Europe,” he wrote.
However, the alliance and Russia have failed to reach a compromise on the system, which Russia fears would thwart its nuclear deterrent despite NATO assurances that it is aimed at Iran and other threats.
Moscow has demanded legally binding guarantees that the missile shield will not undermine its arsenal, but NATO refuses to enter into such an agreement and has instead offered political reassurances.
Ratcheting up the heat, Russia warned this month that it might have to deploy new missiles in Europe to potentially take out elements of the controversial shield.
Russian Chief of Staff General Nikolai Makarov said one option was for Russia to station short-range Iskander missiles in its Kaliningrad enclave near Poland.
Rasmussen did not comment of Moscow’s threats.
However, he announced that last month NATO conducted the first comprehensive test of the missile-defense capability, during which US ship, radar and satellite, as well as interceptor batteries from Germany and the Netherlands, conducted a series of simulated engagements to test the alliance’s ability to defend against missile attacks.
He said the test was successful.
“The test was a clear demonstration of transatlantic solidarity in action,” Rasmussen said. “It also shows NATO’s continuing determination to protect our members’ territory and populations from attack and the threat of attack.”
The first elements of the US network of satellites, sensors and sea-based interceptors are already deployed to Europe, he said.
The Netherlands has announced plans to upgrade four air-defense frigates with missile-defense radar, while France, according to the NATO chief, plans to develop an early-warning capability and long-range radar.
Germany has offered Patriot missile batteries and is hosting the NATO command-and-control at Headquarters Alliance Air Command in Ramstein.
Meanwhile, Turkey, Romania, Poland and Spain have all agreed to host US assets, Rasmussen said.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the