Prague approves US missile base forces accord10 Sept 2008
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gPWZjl...SLqeRNtf30AcPVQPRAGUE (AFP) — The Czech government approved Wednesday an agreement on deploying US forces at an anti-missile radar, with Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek dismissing a Russian general's threat to target the site as "nonsense."
Topolanek told a press conference that the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) would go to the Czech parliament in December at the earliest, in other words "after the US presidential elections."
The agreement was the last hurdle before the missile shield plans, which are strongly opposed by Russia, go before parliament, but public opinion is hostile and it is not yet certain to get majority backing.
Defence Minister Vlasta Parkanova announced that the government had succeeded in having many of its demands included in formal agreement.
Prague and Washington in July signed a preliminary deal to base a powerful radar system in the Czech republic to support a battery of 10 anti-missile missiles in neighbouring Poland.
Shortly before Parkanova's announcement, a senior Russian general said Russia could point its own missiles at the Polish and Czech sites, which the United States says are designed to counter attacks by "rogue states" such as Iran and North Korea.
Moscow "is obliged to take corresponding measures that prevent under any circumstances the devaluing of Russia's nuclear deterrent," Interfax agency quoted General Nikolai Solovtsov, head of Russia's strategic missile forces, as saying.
While the interceptors planned for Poland could not themselves undermine Russia's arsenal, Solovtsov said Moscow was troubled by a lack of transparency in the project.
Moscow sees the plans for new US missile defence facilities in central Europe as part of an effort to encircle Russia. The US denies this, and Topolanek rejected the latest Russian threats as "nonsense."
"I do not intend to contribute to cold war provocation or rhetoric," he said. "The radar is purely defensive, designed to deal with long-range missiles from rogue states," he said.
The radar "cannot either technically or militarily be aimed at a state such as the Russian Federation, which has an arsenal of thousands of these missiles.
"This is nonsense on the technical, security and military aspects.
"The fact that the Russian administration, or rather Russian generals, use such rhetoric, with some even talking of a new cold war, gives me no pleasure, but it does not change our position in any way.
Europe needed a "defensive umbrella," Topolanek added.
SOFA, which could be officially signed in September at NATO defence ministers' talks in London, restricts US troops largely to the interior of the radar base, Parkanova said.
The area and buildings, on a former Soviet military base at Brdy, some 70 kilometres (45 miles) southwest of Prague, will remain Czech property, and Czech forces will be responsible for its protection and external security.
"The US military will be authorised to operate outside the radar station to maintain the discipline of their personnel, but only with the agreement and supervision of the Czech side," Parkanova said.