US missile defense complex in Poland
Encyclopedia
The US missile defense complex in Poland, also called the European Interceptor Site (EIS) was part of the Ballistic Missile Defense European Capability of the US, to be placed in Redzikowo
, Słupsk, Poland
, forming a Ground-Based Midcourse Defense
system in conjunction with a US narrow-beam midcourse tracking and discrimination radar system in the Brdy
, Czech Republic
. It was to consist of up to 10 silo-based interceptors, a two-stage version of the existing three-stage Ground Based Interceptor (GBI), with Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle
(EKV), with a closing speed of about 7 km/s. The plan was cancelled in 2009.
, such as the alleged Shahab-6
, although in November 2007 the U.S. National Intelligence Estimate
reported that Iran's nuclear weapons program had been halted since late 2003. It has also been pointed out that Central Europe is beyond the range of any missile that Iran currently has.
Russia strongly opposed the system. As an alternative, it proposed sharing the Qabala Radar
in Azerbaijan
, which Russia leases, but at the time this was not seen as an acceptable substitute for the US. One of the major difficulties from the Russian perspective was that the associated radar installation, which was to be based in the Czech Republic, would have been able to collect information about all movements in Russian airspace up to the Urals mountains, which is the whole of European Russia.
The missile shield received opposition from certain groups within Poland and the Czech Republic, including numerous protests and a relay hunger strike
by two Czech activists which started in May 2008 and lasted 300 days.
On September 17, 2009, it was announced by the Obama administration that plans for the project had been scrapped. The decision was met with mixed reactions in the US, Poland and the Czech Republic, but praised by Russia and Western European leaders.
In October, with a trip by Vice President Joe Biden
to Warsaw, a new, smaller interceptor project on roughly the same schedule as the Bush administration plan, was introduced, and welcomed by Prime Minister Donald Tusk
.
Since 2002, the US had been in talks with Poland and other European countries over the possibility of setting up a European base to intercept long-range missiles. According to US officials, a site similar to the US base in Alaska would help protect the US and Europe from missiles fired from the Middle East or North Africa. The Ustka-Wicko base of the Polish Army 54.553748°N 16.620255°W was initially mentioned as a possible site of US missile interceptors. Poland's prime minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz
said in November 2005 he wanted to open up the public debate on whether Poland should host such a base.
In February 2007 the US started formal negotiations with Poland and the Czech Republic concerning construction of missile shield installations in those countries for a Ground-Based Midcourse Defense System. However in April 2007 the Washington Post reported that 57% of Poles
opposed the plan.
Russia threatened to place short-range nuclear missiles on its borders with NATO if the United States refused to abandon its plans to deploy 10 interceptor missiles and a radar in Poland and the Czech Republic. In April 2007, then-President Putin warned of a new Cold War
if the Americans deployed the shield in Central Europe. Putin also said that Russia was prepared to abandon its obligations under a Nuclear Forces Treaty
of 1987 with the United States.
On July 4, 2008, Poland did not agree on the conditions set forth by the United States regarding the installation of anti-ballistic missiles on its territory.
On July 8, 2008, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated that if the missile defense system was approved, "we will be forced to react not with diplomatic, but with military-technical methods."
On August 14, 2008, shortly after the 2008 South Ossetia war
, the United States and Poland announced a deal to implement the missile defense system in Polish territory, with a tracking system placed in the Czech Republic. The Russians responded by saying such action "cannot go unpunished." "The fact that this was signed in a period of very difficult crisis in the relations between Russia and the United States over the situation
in Georgia
shows that, of course, the missile defense system will be deployed not against Iran
but against the strategic potential of Russia," Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's NATO envoy, said.
A high-ranking Russian military officer had warned Poland that it was exposing itself to attack by accepting a U.S. missile interceptor base on its soil. The deputy chief of staff of Russia's armed forces Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn has warned Poland that, "by deploying (the system), it is exposing itself to a strike — 100 percent".
On August 20, 2008, the "Agreement Between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Republic of Poland Concerning the Deployment of Ground-Based Ballistic Missile Defense Interceptors in the Territory of the Republic of Poland" was signed in Warsaw by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Poland’s Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski
On November 5, during President Dmitry Medvedev
's first state of the nation speech he stated that Russia would deploy short-range Iskander missiles to Russia's western enclave of Kaliningrad
, sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania
"to neutralize, if necessary, a missile defense system." "From what we have seen in recent years — the creation of a missile defense system, the encirclement of Russia with military bases, the relentless expansion of NATO — we have gotten the clear impression that they are testing our strength," he said.
On November 8, an aide to U.S. President-Elect
Barack Obama
denied a claim made by Polish President
Lech Kaczyński
's office that a pledge had been made to go ahead with the missile defense system during a phone conversation between the two men. "His [Obama's] position is as it was throughout the campaign, that he supports deploying a missile defence system when the technology is proved to be workable," the aid said, but "no commitment" has been made.
On November 14, French President Nicolas Sarkozy
stated that plans for a U.S. missile shield in Eastern Europe were misguided, and wouldn't make the continent a safer place. "Deployment of a missile defense system would bring nothing to security ... it would complicate things, and would make them move backward," he said at a summit. He also warned Russian President Dmitry Medvedev against upping tensions by deploying missiles in Kaliningrad in response to the U.S. planned missile defense system.
On April 5, 2009, President Obama, during his speech in Prague, declared: "As long as the threat from Iran persists, we will go forward with a missile defense system that is cost-effective and proven." President Obama continued to expressed conditional support for the program and sought to isolate it from U.S.-Russian nuclear arms control talks.
On September 17, 2009, The White House
issued a statement saying that the US "no longer planned to move forward" with the project. According to President Obama, new intelligence had shown Iran was pursuing short-range and medium-range missile development, rather than long-range, necessitating a shift in strategy. The outlines of a reformulated, scaled-down project began to emerge in October, 2009 (see below).
, with Poland's governing Civic Platform
party, said Obama's decision had been made independently of Polish sensitivities. Former Polish President Lech Wałęsa
said he was deeply disappointed by the new US administration's plans. He stated: "The Americans have always only taken care of their own interests and they have used everyone else." According to a September 18, 2009 poll, 56 percent of Poles supported Obama's decision and only 30 percent were against it. Leader of main Polish opposition party, Jarosław Kaczyński, claimed that the decision of abandoning the shield was announced on September 17 not by accident
(the date is of great symbolic value to Poland, as on September 17, 1939 Poland was invaded
by the Soviet Union). Polish newspapers showed mixed responses to the discontinuation, with some seeing it as a positive action, and some saw it with very negative connotations.
However Slawomir Nowak
, a senior adviser to Polish Prime Minister Tusk, responded positively to the proposed short and medium range missile systems replacement of the long range systems: "If this system becomes reality in the shape Washington is now suggesting, it would actually be better for us than the original missile shield programme," he stated. "We were never really threatened by a long-range missile attack from Iran," he told TVP Info
.
critics saw this as a move to placate Moscow. Defeated presidential candidate John McCain
called the decision "seriously misguided". Conversely, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
said the decision was "brilliant" and clearly based on an accurate summary of the current threats. Obama rejected accusations that the decision was an appeasement to Moscow. He stated in an interview: "The Russians don't make determinations about what our defence posture is. If the by-product of it is that the Russians feel a little less paranoid... then that's a bonus."
, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee Federation Council of Russia
.
reacted positively. German Chancellor Angela Merkel
welcomed the move, calling it a "a very hopeful signal" for relations with Russia. French President Nicolas Sarkozy
said that this was "an excellent decision from every point of view and I hope that our Russian friends will attach importance to this decision," while British Prime Minister Gordon Brown
gave his fullest backing, stating that he strongly supported the decision taken by Obama.
said the step by the U.S. government was "no big surprise for anybody who had been following the cues in the past days and months," but that he was "100 percent convinced" that the step was no expression of a cooling in relations between the United States and the Czech Republic. However, Mirek Topolanek
, who was prime minister when Prague agreed to co-host the shield, said the US decision to drop the plans "is not good news for the Czech state, for Czech freedom and independence."
ships in the Mediterranean Sea
and elsewhere by 2011, and on land in Eastern Europe by 2015. A more advanced system would be deployed by 2018, and another generation, theoretically capable of shooting down intercontinental missiles, by 2020."
Redzikowo
Redzikowo is a village in northern Poland, located in Gmina Słupsk, Słupsk County, Pomeranian Voivodeship, 5 km to the east of Słupsk. It has 405 inhabitants . Just to the north of it is an airfield which was to be the site of a US missile defense complex that was planned to be built by 2012...
, Słupsk, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, forming a Ground-Based Midcourse Defense
Ground-Based Midcourse Defense
Ground-Based Midcourse Defense is the United States system for intercepting incoming warheads in space. Currently, it is a major component of the U.S. national missile defense strategy aimed against ballistic missiles, including intercontinental ballistic missiles...
system in conjunction with a US narrow-beam midcourse tracking and discrimination radar system in the Brdy
Brdy
Brdy are hills in the Czech Republic, forming a long massif stretching for cca.60 km from Prague in the direction of southwest. The northern section of the Brdy is called "Hřebeny" and features one narrow ridge . The Brdy proper starts south of the Litavka river gorge and consists of several...
, Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
. It was to consist of up to 10 silo-based interceptors, a two-stage version of the existing three-stage Ground Based Interceptor (GBI), with Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle
Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle
Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle can refer to two related missile defense concepts:* Most common: the Raytheon-manufactured interceptor component with subcontractor Aerojet of the U.S...
(EKV), with a closing speed of about 7 km/s. The plan was cancelled in 2009.
Development
According to the United States administration, the system was intended to protect against future missiles from IranIran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
, such as the alleged Shahab-6
Shahab-6
Shahab-6 is the designation of an alleged and possibly fictional Iranian long-range ballistic missile project alleged to exist by Israeli sources, and supposed to be an extension of the Shahab series of missiles, and first reported to the world by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 1997....
, although in November 2007 the U.S. National Intelligence Estimate
National Intelligence Estimate
National Intelligence Estimates are United States federal government documents that are the authoritative assessment of the Director of National Intelligence on intelligence related to a particular national security issue...
reported that Iran's nuclear weapons program had been halted since late 2003. It has also been pointed out that Central Europe is beyond the range of any missile that Iran currently has.
Russia strongly opposed the system. As an alternative, it proposed sharing the Qabala Radar
Qabala Radar
The Qabala Radar or Qabala Radar Station is a Daryal-type bistatic phased-array early warning radar, built by the Soviet Union in the Qabala district of the Azerbaijan SSR in 1985 located at...
in Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
, which Russia leases, but at the time this was not seen as an acceptable substitute for the US. One of the major difficulties from the Russian perspective was that the associated radar installation, which was to be based in the Czech Republic, would have been able to collect information about all movements in Russian airspace up to the Urals mountains, which is the whole of European Russia.
The missile shield received opposition from certain groups within Poland and the Czech Republic, including numerous protests and a relay hunger strike
Hunger strike
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance or pressure in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke feelings of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most hunger strikers will take liquids but not...
by two Czech activists which started in May 2008 and lasted 300 days.
On September 17, 2009, it was announced by the Obama administration that plans for the project had been scrapped. The decision was met with mixed reactions in the US, Poland and the Czech Republic, but praised by Russia and Western European leaders.
In October, with a trip by Vice President Joe Biden
Joe Biden
Joseph Robinette "Joe" Biden, Jr. is the 47th and current Vice President of the United States, serving under President Barack Obama...
to Warsaw, a new, smaller interceptor project on roughly the same schedule as the Bush administration plan, was introduced, and welcomed by Prime Minister Donald Tusk
Donald Tusk
Donald Franciszek Tusk is a Polish politician who has been Prime Minister of Poland since 2007. He was a co-founder and is chairman of the Civic Platform party....
.
History
Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz
Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz is a Polish conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of Poland from October 31, 2005 to July 14, 2006...
said in November 2005 he wanted to open up the public debate on whether Poland should host such a base.
In February 2007 the US started formal negotiations with Poland and the Czech Republic concerning construction of missile shield installations in those countries for a Ground-Based Midcourse Defense System. However in April 2007 the Washington Post reported that 57% of Poles
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
opposed the plan.
Russia threatened to place short-range nuclear missiles on its borders with NATO if the United States refused to abandon its plans to deploy 10 interceptor missiles and a radar in Poland and the Czech Republic. In April 2007, then-President Putin warned of a new Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
if the Americans deployed the shield in Central Europe. Putin also said that Russia was prepared to abandon its obligations under a Nuclear Forces Treaty
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty
The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty is a 1987 agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union. Signed in Washington, D.C. by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev on December 8, 1987, it was ratified by the United States Senate on May 27, 1988 and...
of 1987 with the United States.
On July 4, 2008, Poland did not agree on the conditions set forth by the United States regarding the installation of anti-ballistic missiles on its territory.
On July 8, 2008, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated that if the missile defense system was approved, "we will be forced to react not with diplomatic, but with military-technical methods."
On August 14, 2008, shortly after the 2008 South Ossetia war
2008 South Ossetia war
The 2008 South Ossetia War or Russo-Georgian War was an armed conflict in August 2008 between Georgia on one side, and Russia and separatist governments of South Ossetia and Abkhazia on the other....
, the United States and Poland announced a deal to implement the missile defense system in Polish territory, with a tracking system placed in the Czech Republic. The Russians responded by saying such action "cannot go unpunished." "The fact that this was signed in a period of very difficult crisis in the relations between Russia and the United States over the situation
2008 South Ossetia war
The 2008 South Ossetia War or Russo-Georgian War was an armed conflict in August 2008 between Georgia on one side, and Russia and separatist governments of South Ossetia and Abkhazia on the other....
in Georgia
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
shows that, of course, the missile defense system will be deployed not against Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
but against the strategic potential of Russia," Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's NATO envoy, said.
A high-ranking Russian military officer had warned Poland that it was exposing itself to attack by accepting a U.S. missile interceptor base on its soil. The deputy chief of staff of Russia's armed forces Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn has warned Poland that, "by deploying (the system), it is exposing itself to a strike — 100 percent".
On August 20, 2008, the "Agreement Between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Republic of Poland Concerning the Deployment of Ground-Based Ballistic Missile Defense Interceptors in the Territory of the Republic of Poland" was signed in Warsaw by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Poland’s Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski
Radoslaw Sikorski
Radosław Tomasz Sikorski , is a Polish politician and journalist. He served as Deputy Minister of National Defense in Jan Olszewski's Cabinet and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in Jerzy Buzek's Cabinet. He was also Minister of National Defense in Jarosław Kaczyński's Cabinet...
On November 5, during President Dmitry Medvedev
Dmitry Medvedev
Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev is the third President of the Russian Federation.Born to a family of academics, Medvedev graduated from the Law Department of Leningrad State University in 1987. He defended his dissertation in 1990 and worked as a docent at his alma mater, now renamed to Saint...
's first state of the nation speech he stated that Russia would deploy short-range Iskander missiles to Russia's western enclave of Kaliningrad
Kaliningrad
Kaliningrad is a seaport and the administrative center of Kaliningrad Oblast, the Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea...
, sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
"to neutralize, if necessary, a missile defense system." "From what we have seen in recent years — the creation of a missile defense system, the encirclement of Russia with military bases, the relentless expansion of NATO — we have gotten the clear impression that they are testing our strength," he said.
On November 8, an aide to U.S. President-Elect
President-elect
An -elect is a political candidate who has been elected to an office but who has not yet been sworn in or officially taken office. These may include an incoming president, senator, representative, governor and mayor.Analogously, the term "designate" An -elect is a political candidate who has been...
Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
denied a claim made by Polish President
President of the Republic of Poland
The President of the Republic of Poland is the Polish head of state. His or her rights and obligations are determined in the Constitution of Poland....
Lech Kaczyński
Lech Kaczynski
Lech Aleksander Kaczyński was Polish lawyer and politician who served as the President of Poland from 2005 until 2010 and as Mayor of Warsaw from 2002 until 22 December 2005. Before he became a president, he was also a member of the party Prawo i Sprawiedliwość...
's office that a pledge had been made to go ahead with the missile defense system during a phone conversation between the two men. "His [Obama's] position is as it was throughout the campaign, that he supports deploying a missile defence system when the technology is proved to be workable," the aid said, but "no commitment" has been made.
On November 14, French President Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy is the 23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He assumed the office on 16 May 2007 after defeating the Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal 10 days earlier....
stated that plans for a U.S. missile shield in Eastern Europe were misguided, and wouldn't make the continent a safer place. "Deployment of a missile defense system would bring nothing to security ... it would complicate things, and would make them move backward," he said at a summit. He also warned Russian President Dmitry Medvedev against upping tensions by deploying missiles in Kaliningrad in response to the U.S. planned missile defense system.
On April 5, 2009, President Obama, during his speech in Prague, declared: "As long as the threat from Iran persists, we will go forward with a missile defense system that is cost-effective and proven." President Obama continued to expressed conditional support for the program and sought to isolate it from U.S.-Russian nuclear arms control talks.
On September 17, 2009, The White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
issued a statement saying that the US "no longer planned to move forward" with the project. According to President Obama, new intelligence had shown Iran was pursuing short-range and medium-range missile development, rather than long-range, necessitating a shift in strategy. The outlines of a reformulated, scaled-down project began to emerge in October, 2009 (see below).
International reactions to discontinuation of project
Polish response
The Polish government responded nervously. Some politicians voiced concern that the country would lose its special status in Washington, and that the move by Obama was an appeasement to Moscow. Jaroslaw GowinJaroslaw Gowin
Jarosław Gowin is a Polish conservative politician, and currently is Poland's minister of justice. He was elected to the Senate on September 25, 2005, as a candidate of the Civic Platform. During the 2007 Polish parliamentary elections, he was Platform's leader in the Krakow constituency after Jan...
, with Poland's governing Civic Platform
Civic Platform
Civic Platform , abbreviated to PO, is a centre-right, liberal conservative political party in Poland. It has been the major coalition partner in Poland's government since the 2007 general election, with party leader Donald Tusk as Prime Minister of Poland and Bronisław Komorowski as President...
party, said Obama's decision had been made independently of Polish sensitivities. Former Polish President Lech Wałęsa
Lech Wałęsa
Lech Wałęsa is a Polish politician, trade-union organizer, and human-rights activist. A charismatic leader, he co-founded Solidarity , the Soviet bloc's first independent trade union, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, and served as President of Poland between 1990 and 95.Wałęsa was an electrician...
said he was deeply disappointed by the new US administration's plans. He stated: "The Americans have always only taken care of their own interests and they have used everyone else." According to a September 18, 2009 poll, 56 percent of Poles supported Obama's decision and only 30 percent were against it. Leader of main Polish opposition party, Jarosław Kaczyński, claimed that the decision of abandoning the shield was announced on September 17 not by accident
(the date is of great symbolic value to Poland, as on September 17, 1939 Poland was invaded
Soviet invasion of Poland
Soviet invasion of Poland can refer to:* the second phase of the Polish-Soviet War of 1920 when Soviet armies marched on Warsaw, Poland* Soviet invasion of Poland of 1939 when Soviet Union allied with Nazi Germany attacked Second Polish Republic...
by the Soviet Union). Polish newspapers showed mixed responses to the discontinuation, with some seeing it as a positive action, and some saw it with very negative connotations.
However Slawomir Nowak
Slawomir Nowak
Sławomir Nowak is a Polish politician. He was elected to Sejm on September 25, 2005 getting 9061 votes in 25 Gdańsk district, candidating from Civic Platform list.He was also a member of Sejm 2001-2005....
, a senior adviser to Polish Prime Minister Tusk, responded positively to the proposed short and medium range missile systems replacement of the long range systems: "If this system becomes reality in the shape Washington is now suggesting, it would actually be better for us than the original missile shield programme," he stated. "We were never really threatened by a long-range missile attack from Iran," he told TVP Info
TVP Info
TVP Info is a Polish news channel, which replaced TVP3. It is run by the public broadcaster, TVP and dedicated to the country's regions. It had regional branches in most of the major Polish cities and, similarly to the France 3 in France or Rai Tre in Italy, for couple of hours every day it...
.
American response
Reactions in the US to Obama's decision were mixed. Some RepublicanRepublican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
critics saw this as a move to placate Moscow. Defeated presidential candidate John McCain
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
called the decision "seriously misguided". Conversely, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
Nancy Pelosi
Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro Pelosi is the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives and served as the 60th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011...
said the decision was "brilliant" and clearly based on an accurate summary of the current threats. Obama rejected accusations that the decision was an appeasement to Moscow. He stated in an interview: "The Russians don't make determinations about what our defence posture is. If the by-product of it is that the Russians feel a little less paranoid... then that's a bonus."
Russian response
President Medvedev welcomed the news as "positive". "We value the US president’s responsible approach towards implementing our agreements," he stated in an address shown on national television. Prime Minister Putin said it was a "correct and brave" move. The main reason for President Barack Obama's decision was "Russia's uncompromising position on the issue," according to Russian foreign policy expert Mikhail MargelovMikhail Margelov
Mikhail Vitalievich Margelov , the current Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Federation Council of Russia. He is a member of the United Russia party and has represented the Pskov region in the Federation Council since December 2000...
, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee Federation Council of Russia
Federation Council of Russia
Federation Council of Russia ) is the upper house of the Federal Assembly of Russia , according to the 1993 Constitution of the Russian Federation...
.
Western European response
Leaders in Western EuropeWestern Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
reacted positively. German Chancellor Angela Merkel
Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel is the current Chancellor of Germany . Merkel, elected to the Bundestag from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, has been the chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union since 2000, and chairwoman of the CDU-CSU parliamentary coalition from 2002 to 2005.From 2005 to 2009 she led a...
welcomed the move, calling it a "a very hopeful signal" for relations with Russia. French President Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy is the 23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He assumed the office on 16 May 2007 after defeating the Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal 10 days earlier....
said that this was "an excellent decision from every point of view and I hope that our Russian friends will attach importance to this decision," while British Prime Minister Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
gave his fullest backing, stating that he strongly supported the decision taken by Obama.
Czech response
Czech President Vaclav KlausVáclav Klaus
Václav Klaus is the second President of the Czech Republic and a former Prime Minister .An economist, he is co-founder of the Civic Democratic Party, the Czech Republic's largest center-right political party. Klaus is a eurosceptic, but he reluctantly endorsed the Lisbon treaty as president of...
said the step by the U.S. government was "no big surprise for anybody who had been following the cues in the past days and months," but that he was "100 percent convinced" that the step was no expression of a cooling in relations between the United States and the Czech Republic. However, Mirek Topolanek
Mirek Topolánek
Mirek Topolánek is a former prime minister of the Czech Republic and former President of the European Council. A member of the Civic Democratic Party, he was chairman of the center-right party between November 2002 and March 2010, succeeding Václav Klaus, who was elected President in 2003.On 24...
, who was prime minister when Prague agreed to co-host the shield, said the US decision to drop the plans "is not good news for the Czech state, for Czech freedom and independence."
Reformulated Obama administration project
The reformulated project announced most prominently by Vice President Biden in October, 2009, would entail smaller, mobile SM-3 interceptors, to be emplaced by 2018. The whole of the Obama plan "envisions stationing existing SM-3 interceptors as part of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense on Aegis-equippedAegis combat system
The Aegis Combat System is an integrated naval weapons system developed by the Missile and Surface Radar Division of RCA, and now produced by Lockheed Martin...
ships in the Mediterranean Sea
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
and elsewhere by 2011, and on land in Eastern Europe by 2015. A more advanced system would be deployed by 2018, and another generation, theoretically capable of shooting down intercontinental missiles, by 2020."
See also
- Recent Developments From National Missile Defense Article
- European Front From Anti-ballistic Missile Article.