A team of U.S. experts in fire protection, logistics, health service and landscape protection visited the Czech Brdy military district where the U.S. plans to build an anti-missile radar base, Defense Ministry spokesman Andrej Cirtek said on Monday.
The experts visited the area one week after the Czech military evicted Greenpeace activists, who had blocked it for over a month in protest against the plan, from there.
Cirtek said that there was no direct connection between the experts' visit and the eviction of the activists.
"The spot height 718 is part of the military district and sooner or later there will be the training that will need its use," the Czech news agency CTK quoted Cirtek as saying.
Cirtek said that U.S. experts, who would stay in the Czech Republic till Friday, did not have to visit directly the site of the future construction as they also could have visited the surrounding area.
The visit follows up military and technological consultations that took place last year, he added.
From last year, a number of U.S. expert teams have examined the conditions for the U.S. radar base.
Education Minister Ondrej Liska, member of junior ruling party Greens, said on Monday that he wanted the bilateral treaty on the U.S. radar base on Czech soil to be ratified in Czech parliament only under a new U.S. president.
"We, Greens, will do our utmost for the treaty to be ratified only after the new U.S. administration assumes power, which means next year at the earliest," Liska said.
The United States plans to build a radar base in the Czech Republic, along with an interceptor missile base in Poland.
Russia is strongly opposed to the deployment of the system, saying the plan poses a threat to its strategic interests.
Some 70 percent of Czech citizens also oppose the project.
Topolanek's center-right government has completed its talks with the United States on the main radar treaty and it is reportedly close to completing negotiations on the complementary SOFA treaty, dealing with U.S. soldiers' status on Czech territory.
Source:Xinhua
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