NATO is preparing its first significant decision on missile defense for the alliance's next summit in Bucharest, Romania, in early April, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Friday.
The Bucharest decision is expected to give the alliance a general direction on this issue, but will not be the final as "many things would have to be worked out," de Hoop Scheffer told a press conference at an informal meeting of NATO defense ministers.
NATO defense ministers devoted a session to the alliance's transformation with missile defense high on the agenda.
The United States has been trying to persuade its European allies to integrate a planned U.S. anti-ballistic missile shield in Eastern Europe with NATO's own short and medium-range missile defense system.
The United States is negotiating with Poland and the Czech Republic to place its system in these two countries. Washington claimed that the U.S. system alone can cover most of the European allies, except Turkey and parts of Bulgaria, Romania and Greece.
If bolted on to NATO's own theater missile defense system, which NATO has been developing for years, all territories of the European allies can be covered, according to Washington.
On Friday, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates talked about the U.S. plan and told his colleagues from Europe that the bolt-on would only cost NATO a fraction, said a NATO official who was in the meeting.
There was a sense among NATO defense ministers that the bolt-on idea would work, said the official, who asked not to be named.
There was an understanding among the ministers that no formal decision on missile defense is expected until a NATO summit in 2009, as lots of technical questions need to be sorted out, said the official.
France was not represented in the meeting and Germany did not comment, said the official.
At their Riga summit in November 2006, NATO heads of state and government tasked NATO and its member states to looking into the political desirability of a NATO strategic missile defense shield after a study showed that such a system was technically feasible.
NATO discussions on its own missile defense system was disrupted by a subsequent U.S. announcement that it will deploy a site in Eastern Europe.
Source: Xinhua
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article