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US confident of Europe missile deal soon: Fried
Brussels (AFP) March 5, 2008 The United States is confident it can complete negotiations on extending its missile shield into Europe before President George W. Bush leaves office, senior US officials said Wednesday. "The odds are extremely high that they will be successful, extremely high," said US Acting Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Dan Fried when asked about the chances of striking a deal by the end of the year, "There are complicated negotiations underway but we are making good progress, both technically and politically," he told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels. Washington has been negotiating with the Czech Republic and Poland to base a radar and interceptors on their territories to shoot down missiles fired by "rogue states", amid concerns over Iran's weapons programmes. Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, whose country would host a tracking radar, said Sunday that the details could be worked out before an April 2-4 NATO summit in Bucharest. Poland, which would accept 10 missile interceptors without explosive war heads, said last month that talks with Washington had stalled. Warsaw has sought extra security guarantees in exchange for the move, and has asked for a long-term, multi-billion-dollar military aid package and a bilateral security accord. Despite the difficulties, the US state department's arms control and international security expert, John Rood, also remained optimistic that a deal can be done soon. "We are quite well advanced" with the Czechs, he said. "There is only just one sentence that remains in the agreement to be negotiated. My expectation is that in the very near term we will successfully complete those negotiations." On talks with Poland, he noted: "There are still some substantial issues that remain to be done, but we are optimistic still in the United States that we can successfully conclude these negotiations in the near term." The US missile shield plans have deeply angered Russia, as it would bring its former Cold War foe more deeply into territory that was once the Soviet Union's sphere of influence. Related Links Learn about missile defense at SpaceWar.com Learn about nuclear weapons doctrine and defense at SpaceWar.com All about missiles at SpaceWar.com Learn about the Superpowers of the 21st Century at SpaceWar.com
US, Czech on cusp of missile shield deal
Washington (AFP) Feb 27, 2008US President George W. Bush and Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said Wednesday they were on the cusp of reaching agreement on a radar for a planned US missile shield that has angered Russia. |
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