Hungary not to be surveyed as U.S. missile base location

Hungary is not among the central European countries to be surveyed by U.S. military experts as a possible location for an anti-missile base, local media reported on Tuesday evening.

After the military experts had finished their week-long survey in the Czech Republic on Monday, they would survey more sites in Poland, but not in Hungary, the Czech public radio Radiozurnal quoted U.S. sources as saying.

Czech Defence Minister Karel Kuhnl told Radiozurnal that the final results of the U.S. surveys were expected to be announced at the end of August.

Hungarian Foreign Ministry spokesman Viktor Polgar denied the reports that his country would host American military experts in August.

The United States seeks to expand its missile defense system into Europe to guard against rocket launchings due to the recent test firing of long-range missiles by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Washington proposed the missile defense system known as NMD in 1999, which is aimed at developing a defense network against short and long-range missiles. But most of its NATO allies are still reserved about the idea, in part because they fear the implementation of such a plan would undermine overall European security and disrupt the current strategic balance.

Source: Xinhua