NATO considers missile defenses in tandem with U.S. shield (Jun 14, 2007)

Jun 14, 2007 (AP)

The Thursday's agreement to launch the study factors the U.S. proposal for Europe-based anti-missile interceptors and radar units into NATO planning for the first time, reads an AP report cited by iht.com.

It also reflects a growing acceptance of Washington's plans among the 26 allies, despite initial skepticism in some European nations and virulent opposition from Russia.

"The NATO road map on missile defense is now clear. It's practical and it's agreed by all," said Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, NATO's secretary general.

Ministers welcomed Russia's offer of missile defense cooperation through a radar base in Azerbaijan as showing a more conciliatory tone, following Moscow's furious first reaction to the missile defense plans.

However, they suggested the Azeri base could supplement rather than replace the U.S. plan to install 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and the main radar base in the Czech Republic.

"I don't think it can replace the American proposal, but I think it can be part of the missile defense," Danish Defense Minister Soeren Gade said.

Washington says the addition of the European bases to anti-missile installations in North America would protect most of Europe from the threat of long-range attack from Iran or elsewhere in the Middle East. But it would leave Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria and parts of Romania exposed. To fill that gap, de Hoop Scheffer said NATO experts would produce a report by February on a short-range anti-missile defenses "that can be bolted on to the overall missile defense system as it would be installed by the United States."

Russia has threatened to retaliate against the U.S. plans by pulling out of a key arms control treaty and pointing warheads at Europe for the first time since the Cold War. However, at last week's G-8 summit, President Vladimir Putin seemed to take a more open approach, suggesting Russia could cooperate with the West on an anti-missile radar base in Azerbaijan.

De Hoop Scheffer said talks with Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov had "not entirely" clarified how Russia envisages cooperation on the Azeri base or overcome Moscow opposition to the missile defense plan.

"We have some hard nuts to crack," he told a news conference.

The Russians have rejected U.S. assertions that Iran poses a missile threat, saying it is decades away from producing missiles that could target Europe. They claim the U.S. plans pose a threat to Russia.

The NATO ministers also agreed to step up work to prevent attacks on alliance members' computer systems, following a sustained cyber-assault on Estonian Web sites at the height of a diplomatic dispute between the Baltic nation and Russia in May.

"Urgent work is needed to enhance the ability to protect information systems of critical importance to the alliance against cyber attacks," Appathurai told a news conference.



An AFP report from WASHINGTON reads that the United States told Russia Thursday not to threaten the former Soviet Baltic states with cyber-attacks and sanctions but to discuss differences in a "civilized" way.

"There are deep and difficult issues in Russia's relations with the Baltic states and some of them are rooted in different views of history," US Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried said.

Last month, Estonia accused Russia of launching a wave of attacks against its computer systems as part of a campaign of unofficial sanctions.

Moscow has generally been unhappy with its democratic neighbors Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania after they joined NATO in 2004.

"Their democratic ideals and their democratic success is not a threat to anyone least of all their great neighbor Russia," said Fried, who is in charge of European and Eurasian affairs in the State Department.

"The Russians sometimes say that we are trying to surround them, encircle them but is it not in the best interest of Russia to be, quote, surrounded by peaceful, prospering democracies.

"Doesn't Russian history suggest that threats from the West do not come from democracies but dictatorships and nationalistic dictatorships?" Fried asked.

Estonia's Foreign Minister Urmas Paet called for common NATO strategy to cope with "cyberattacks," as those faced by his state recently.

"Our alliance should not constrained by the limits of conventional wisdom and just as we need to protect ourselves from hostile airplanes, missiles and submarines, we require a defense for our cyberspace," he said.

"The Internet could become the prefect battlefield of the 21st century."



AP report cited by iht.com, AFP