BRUSSELS (AP) – NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer believes there is “a real and growing missile threat to Europe” and wants to ensure that all allies are defended against it, his spokesman said Monday.
“His concern … is ensuring that all of the allies move together on any issue and on particularly one of this strategic importance,” said spokesman James Appathurai.
A NATO report last year concluded that Europe faces a risk of missile attack and said it would be feasible to build an anti-missile shield. However allies are divided over the extent of the threat and over the political and economic implications of developing such a system. In November, alliance leaders ordered further study.
Meanwhile, the United States is pressing ahead with its own missile defenses and has recently announced plans to base missile interceptors in Poland and radar units in the Czech Republic as part of a project to extend the system to Europe.
Washington’s move has provoked an angry response Russia and generated concern from some Western European allies.
“There are a number of concerns to do with the shared view of the threat assessment, to do with costs, to do with how we engage with the Russian Federation,” Appathurai acknowledged.
Envoys from the 27 NATO allies are expected to hold high level talks in the coming weeks to prepare for a NATO report expected in June on the nature of the missile threat to Europe. The issue is also expected to come up at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers next month in Oslo, Norway.
Appathurai said talks would focus on “what do we need to do to ensure indivisibility of security … to ensure that there are no A teams and B teams when it comes to protection.”
Britain and Denmark are already cooperate with the American plan through upgrades of radars sites in northern England and Greenland. German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung has suggested the anti-missile system to be integrated into NATO’s defenses.
By developing the anti-ballistic missile shield within NATO, officials hope they could better dovetail it with the alliance’s ongoing plan with to build up battlefield defenses against short-range missiles. By combining the two systems, they hope to protect parts of the alliance closest to the Middle East, such as Turkey, Greece and southern Italy would may not be covered by the current American plans.
However some allies are wary. French President Jacques Chirac last week said the American plan “raises several questions” and warned against reviving Cold War divisions with Moscow, which says the defense shield undermines its own security.
“We have to be very careful not to encourage the creation of new divisions in Europe, or return to the past” Chirac said Friday at an EU summit meeting in Brussels.
Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn called the U.S. plan an “incomprehensible” waste of money last week and suggested the Poles and Czechs were failing to show “solidarity” with other European countries by dealing separately with the Americans.
The U.S. has insisted the 10 missiles interceptors it aims to install in Poland would pose no threat to Russia, but could defend Europe from an attack from Iran or other potential dangers from the Middle East.
