The Czech government has announced that it wants to host a large US military site for the Pentagon's much-criticized missile shield system, confirming for the first time that Washington had asked Prague for permission to build a radar site for the national missile defense program.
Russia had warned last month that any extension of the US missile project to eastern Europe would force it to review its military planning.
In one of his first acts since coming to power, Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said that building the facilities in the Czech Republic, the first extension of the "son of star wars" project beyond the US, would boost European security.
Topolanek referred only to a radar site, a strong indication that the Pentagon is hoping to locate the bigger part of the European project -- a large missile interceptor silo that would theoretically fire off rockets to destroy incoming missiles -- in neighboring Poland.
The US demand was one of the first issues Topolanek has had to handle after becoming prime minister. The Czech Republic has effectively been without a government since elections became deadlocked seven months ago.
The centre-right leader cobbled together a weak coalition and won a parliamentary confidence vote on Friday courtesy of two opposition defectors.
As soon as Topolanek won the vote, the US tabled its request.
"We are convinced that a possible deployment of the radar station on our territory is in our interest," he said. "It will increase the security of the Czech Republic and Europe."
New Defense Minister Vlasta Parkanova, a Christian Democrat, reinforced support for the contentious scheme, while acknowledging public reservations.
"I am aware that locating an allied radar site on our territory is a sensitive issue for Czech citizens. Some threats can be confronted only in cooperation with our partners, and an attack by a ballistic missile is among them ... We should not consider this issue ideologically but consider whether it raises the security of the Czech Republic and all its citizens," Parkanova said.
The US has been quietly negotiating with the Czechs and the Poles for almost four years, while scouting southern Poland and areas east of the Czech capital, Prague, for suitable missile defense sites. Both centre-right governments in Prague and Warsaw are strongly pro-Washington. If the US plan gets a green light, the spending on the Polish and Czech projects is likely to total US$1.6 billion with the bases built by 2011.
The US has already built two missile interceptor sites, in California and Alaska. The proposed project is the first in Europe. It has alarmed Russia, which claims it is the target of the missile shield. The US says the installations are aimed at thwarting potential North Korean long-range missiles, while the European sites guard against long-range missiles from Iran or other regional foes.
Up to two-thirds of Poles and Czechs are against taking part in the missile shield, according to opinion surveys, and the government in Warsaw, while in favor, has opposed the US terms. The Pentagon insists both would be sovereign US bases with the staff stationed there, some 500 in total, not subject to Polish or Czech law.
"I approach the problem of extra-territoriality with reserve, I won't hide that," Polish President Lech Kaczynski, said last year.
The Kremlin argues that the missile shield is doomed to failure and will merely succeed in stoking tension and mistrust.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS