NATO leaders endorsed a controversial US missile shield for Europe yesterday, and US and Czech officials agreed on deployment of the first element – an advanced radar, despite strong Russian opposition.
US officials have confirmed a final communique on the missile defence system, parts of which will be stationed in Poland and the Czech Republic, and said the deal would "recognise the substantive contribution to the protection of the allies".
But allies did not take procurement decisions on a possible Nato add-on system to cover those parts of south-east Europe not under its umbrella.
Washington says the shield will protect the United States and its allies from attack by what it calls "rogue" states, such as Iran and North Korea.
Russia has described US plans to install ten interceptor missiles in Poland and a tracking radar in the Czech Republic as "destabilising", and said ordinary people in many European countries were sceptical of the need for it.
Russia regards the system as a threat to its security and sees the construction of the shield on the territory of its former Warsaw Pact allies as an intrusion into its sphere of influence.
One senior US official at the summit in Bucharest, however, said the confidence-building measures that Washington had offered Moscow "really blunted Russia's argument that this was dangerous to Russia".
Nato's secretary-general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, said the alliance had decided in Bucharest that "there is a threat" from ballistic missiles and "allied security must be indivisible in the face of it".
He also said Nato would order a report for its summit next year on options to expand missile defence protection.
The full article contains 287 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
