Establishing a U.S. missile defense base in Europe would help ensure the security of the U.S.'s European allies, Henry Obering, head of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, told the Czech daily Hospodarske Noviny on Friday.

Without a base in Europe, the United States would not be able to provide the same protection to its European allies, its own citizens and military forces stationed in Europe as in the United States, Obering said.

The United States plans to deploy a missile defense radar in the Czech Republic and interceptor missiles in Poland. The operation is going to start in 2011 and the location of the base would be decided early next year.

The Czech Civic Democratic Party (ODS), which won the most recent elections, supported the deployment of the base on Czech territory, while the election runner-up, the Social Democrats called for a referendum on the issue.

Obering said that the United States wanted to earmark 600-700 million U.S. dollars for the project, one third of which would be destined for the radar in the Czech Republic.

The paper called on people in the Czech Republic and Poland not to consent to the idea of deploying U.S. bases in their countries.

Source: Xinhua