WIESBADEN, Germany (AP) – Germany’s defense minister suggested Friday that U.S. plans to develop an anti-missile shield with radar units and interceptor batteries based in Europe could be integrated into the defenses of the NATO alliance.
“I think it would be smart to integrate this whole system into NATO,” Franz Josef Jung told a news conference after a European Union defense ministers’ meeting. “In the development of such a system, we should try to tie it into the alliance.”
He said NATO should also do more to address Russian concerns about the American plan.
NATO has been studying for five years the prospect of developing a system to defend the territory of the 27 allies. Alliance leaders at a summit in November ordered a more in-depth report into “political and military implications of missile defense for the alliance including an update on missile threat developments.”
Jung said he expected the report to be ready by June. Expanding on his comments, German Defense Ministry officials stressed that no decisions had been taken on bringing the U.S. system into NATO and that more talks were needed within the alliance.
A preliminary study by NATO experts last year concluded there was a missile threat and that it was technically feasible to develop a defense system. However, while several allies are wary of pouring billions of euros (dollars) into developing a NATO system, the United States has pressed ahead with its own missile shield plans.
The U.S. has formally asked to place a radar base in the Czech Republic and 10 interceptor missiles in Poland as part of its plans for a missile defense shield that Washington says would protect against a potential threat from Iran or North Korea.
Britain is also in talks with the U.S. about the deployment. On a visit to NATO headquarters Thursday, the director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, Lt. Gen. Henry A. Obering, said Washington wants to base an anti-missile radar in the Caucasus, a move likely to intensify Russian concerns.
Officials in Azerbaijan and Georgia say they are not in talks with the United States on the possibility of placing missile defense components on their territory. The other Caucasus nation, Armenia, has close military ties to Russia and would be an unlikely choice.
“There have been no negotiations, and we are not discussing these questions either in a bilateral or multilateral format,” said Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Khazar Ibrahim.
Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili said Tuesday that Georgia has received no request from the United States to allow deployment of missile defense elements on its territory, and ministry spokeswoman Nato Chikovani said that was still the case Friday.
On Thursday, the European Union’s foreign policy chief Javier Solana said the EU had no plans as a bloc to participate in the development of a missile shield, but said member nations were free to decide if they wanted to join the project.
“We are not as Europeans concerned to establish a mechanism of that type,” Solana said. “This is for every country to decide.” He questioned whether there was an immediate threat to Europe from a missile attack, but said it was something the EU should consider in the future.
