Proposed Missile Defenses in Europe Would Target Iranian Threat
22 February 2007
State's Fried says limited defenses in Central Europe not aimed at Russia
Washington – A senior State Department official says a plan to deploy elements of a limited missile defense system in Central Europe is not meant to upset a cooperative relationship between the United States and Russia.
Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried told reporters at the Washington Foreign Press Center February 22 that Russia’s strategic nuclear deterrent is not the intended target of 10 ballistic missile interceptors in Poland and tracking radar in the Czech Republic. The Russians know that, he said, because they have been told so in ongoing high-level consultations and meetings of technical experts of the two nations dating back to the spring of 2006.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also emphasized this point during a trip to Germany February 21 when she said there has been considerable bilateral consultation on missile-deployment plans as well as within the NATO-Russia Council.
“[T]here is no way that 10 interceptors in Poland and radar sites in the Czech Republic are a threat to Russia or that they are somehow going to diminish Russia’s deterrent of thousands of warheads,” she said following a meeting with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin.
“I think everybody understands that with a growing Iranian missile threat -- which is quite pronounced -- that there needs to be ways to deal with that problem, and, that we’re talking about long lead times to be able to have a defensive counter to offensive missile threats.”
Russian experts are well aware of the limitations of putting 10 long-range interceptors in Poland, Fried said, expressing surprise at what he characterized as an incomprehensible and negative public reaction by senior Russian military and civilian leaders. The head of Russia’s strategic rocket forces, General Nikolai Solovstsov, was quoted in press reports as saying Russia might target missile defenses if the United States deploys them to former Warsaw Pact nations.
“A threat against Poland and the Czech Republic makes no sense in the early part of the 21st century, and, we assume and hope that the general was not speaking for the entire Russian government,” Fried said.
Instead, Fried said, there is no correlation between Russia’s “public tone and the private diplomatic reality” on missile defense, and, Moscow’s suggestion that it might withdraw from the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty) between Washington and Moscow. There is much work to be done through further consultations with Russia, he said, even as National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley was in Moscow February 22 addressing a range of topics.
Fried said recent comments by Russian leaders on the INF Treaty and missile defense in Europe suggest Russia’s desire to assert itself as a world power. The United States welcomes this, he said, if it means Russia will help reign in Iran’s nuclear ambitions and North Korean weapons development, hunt down terrorists and promote positive political developments in Kosovo. (See related article.)
The assistant secretary said the U.S. goal is to work in partnership with Russia on a broad range of issues. He expressed optimism that both countries would move beyond recent negative comments about missile defense and the INF Treaty that eliminated all U.S. and Russian nuclear and ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles in the 500- to 5,500-kilometer range. The assistant secretary reminded his audience that Russia had suggested that it might abandon the treaty even before the subject of missile defenses in Europe arose.
The director of the Missile Defense Agency, who addressed the FPC with Fried, also emphasized that prospective deployments in Europe are aimed at the evolving threat from Iran and not Russia. “We want to have a defense in place” by 2013 before longer-range Iranian missiles pose a critical threat, said Lieutenant General Henry Obering. (See related article.)
Fried said the system that the United States is talking about deploying in Europe “is no good against the Russian ballistic missile capability,” but has “the potential to be effective against the Iranian threat and the benefits to Europe are clear.”
Obering outlined missile defense progress, noting that since 2001 there have been 21 hit-to-kill intercepts using kinetic energy to destroy targets. Neither warheads nor explosives are used and he discounted the very low probability of damage on the ground from shoe-sized debris.
The officer also dismissed any potential hazard from electromagnetic pulsing should a nuclear-equipped missile be destroyed in the future at high altitude. He said there is no reason for health concerns from a European-based X-band radar because the one destined for the Czech Republic has been used for years in the Marshall Islands without incident.
Obering said the United States is looking for additional ways to partner with the United Kingdom on missile defense research and development. Other partners include Japan, Australia, Denmark and Italy.
For more information, see Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.
(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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