The Prague Post Online: News: Full speed ahead

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Full speed ahead

Encouraged by summit talks, pro-radar leaders look to parliamentary approval

By Markéta Hulpachová
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
April 9th, 2008 issue

ISIFA/SIPA PRESS

President Václav Klaus took part in the North Atlantic Council, which agreed April 3 to integrate missile defense into NATO. enlarge

ISIFA/SIPA PRESS

During April 4 talks in the resort of Sochi, Bush assured Putin that Russia is not a target. enlarge

Bucharest, ROMANIA

For Czech policymakers, no recent issue has been more paramount than the United States’ plans to extend its European missile-defense shield by erecting a radar base some 90 kilometers (56 miles) southwest of Prague.

So when a beaming Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek, President Václav Klaus and Defense Minister Vlasta Parkanová waltzed into a media room April 3 to brief journalists about the latest NATO summit developments, it was evident that the most recent round of talks between Foreign Affairs Minister Karel Schwarzenberg and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had been fruitful.

Minutes after meeting with his U.S. counterpart, Schwarzenberg stopped in to tell journalists that the bilateral treaty providing the framework for the radar’s installation was complete.

“The negotiations were tough, but they were held in a friendly atmosphere,” he said, adding that he and Rice would sign the treaty in Prague within the first 10 days of May.

For the Czech delegation, the finalization of the missile-defense treaty represented the climax of the three-day summit. In a global conference mainly focusing on world powers and their stance toward a handful of east European countries vying for NATO accession, the Czech Republic caught the spotlight when word of the joint Czech-U.S. statement flashed on news monitors around the NATO press center.

“The United States and the Czech Republic are pleased to announce the completion of negotiations on a missile-defense agreement,” it read, marking one of the few times the Czech Republic’s name was mentioned in connection with a key summit event.

In the eyes of the international media, the Czech delegates seemed somewhat less recognizable compared with figures such as Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, whose appearance in the media work hall mobilized photographers into a trigger-happy legion, some of them crawling between their colleagues’ legs to get a shot.

When Schwarzenberg strolled in minutes later, his candid chat with a handful of Czech journalists wasn’t accompanied by a single camera flash, allowing him to discuss the details of the nascent radar treaty without interruption.

“[The Americans] thanked us for working quickly and not delaying the negotiations,” Schwarzenberg said, adding that the treaty had molded the bonds between the Czech Republic and the United States into a “truly good partnership.”

In exchange for agreeing to host the radar base, the government expects the United States to support local economic, scientific and technological endeavors, he added.

Domestic uncertainty

During Schwarzenberg’s April 3 tete-a-tete with Rice, Klaus and Topolánek represented the country in a meeting of the North Atlantic Council, whose final conclusions on missile defense were also presented as good news by the Czech delegation. Agreeing that “ballistic missile proliferation poses an increasing threat to Allies’ forces,” the council agreed in its final declaration to integrate future missile-defense projects into a broader NATO system.

Although ambiguously worded, the declaration indicates that the radar base on Czech soil is now essentially NATO-approved. For Topolánek, who will have to submit the Czech-U.S. treaty to a polarized Parliament for ratification, getting NATO to sanction the radar base is especially important.

Opposed by approximately two-thirds of the Czech population according to local polls, the treaty faces staunch resistance from the Social Democrats and the Communists, who together occupy nearly 50 percent of seats in the lower house. In a setting where every vote counts, getting Green Party deputies (who hold six seats in the lower house) to approve the treaty is therefore essential for its ratification.

To officially back the treaty, the party requires a joint approval of the radar base by the NATO Council and the Council of the European Union, as well as a binding U.S. guarantee that the radar facilities will be under NATO command.

According to Schwarzenberg, himself a Green Party member, the NATO Council’s April 3 declaration was enough to get the Greens onboard with the radar treaty. However, back home, the resolution of an April 5 meeting of the party’s national council contradicted his claims.

Alleging that the NATO council’s position satisfied only one of the Greens’ requirements, the party’s leadership rejected the construction of the radar base on the grounds that national security can only be achieved on a multilateral — not a bilateral — approach.

“The remaining two conditions, a binding U.S. guarantee that the radar facilities will be under NATO command and a joint position of the European Council, have not been fulfilled,” said Green Party spokeswoman Eva Rolečková.

‘About us without us’

Juxtaposed against the opposition of Moscow, which calls the radar base a U.S. effort to spy on Russia, the treaty’s uncertain future on the domestic political scene seems a negligible piece of the puzzle. While only mentioned in passing at the April 4 meeting of the NATO Russia Council, intensive talks regarding the United States’ plans to expand the missile-defense system continued during the following two days in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi, where Putin and U.S. President George W. Bush met for further negotiations.

Struggling to appease the disquieted world power, Bush reiterated the United States’ offer to take “transparency and confident-building measures” to assure Russia that it was not a target of the missile-defense system, which Putin reportedly regarded as a viable resolution.

Alarmed that this agreement could signal a future visit to the radar base by Russian military officials, a spectrum of top local politicians are already voicing their strong disapproval and alluding to the Cold War era, when the country endured the decades-long presence of Soviet troops.

In an effort to dissipate public fears that the two world powers were about to make a decision “about us without us,” Schwarzenberg assured NATO journalists that a decision regarding a potential Russian military presence would ultimately be made by the Czech government. “This is something that we and the Russians will discuss ourselves,” he said. “Whether Russian or U.S. soldiers will be stationed on Czech soil is entirely up to us.”

RADAR TALK AT THE SUMMIT

You cannot imagine how much slander and flat-out lies have been circulated about [the radar base]. Unfortunately, our society has believed them.”

“Sometimes, a politician must do his duty regarding his nation’s best interest, even if his actions are unpopular at the time.”

— Foreign Affairs Minister Karel Schwarzenberg

“It might interest the Czech public that President Putin did not mention the word ‘radar’ or missile-defense systems. … Words about the need for partnership, efforts at improving mutual understanding, abandoning Cold War dogmas and the necessity to stand up to the threats of the 21st century, not the 20th century, dominated on all sides.”

— President Václav Klaus after the Russia Council meeting

“It was reaffirmed that the proliferation of ballistic missiles constitutes a growing threat. … According to NATO, missile defense is part of a wider response. ... The states agreed that a European [missile-defense shield], including the radar, is a substantial contribution to NATO allies.”

- Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek

“Potential capacity matters more than actions. … The extension of the anti-ballistic missile system to Poland and the Czech Republic … is a strategic movement toward our borders.”

“Neither the United States nor Russia has any interest in starting another Cold War.”

— Russian President Vladimir Putin

“Since the end of the Cold War, NATO has brought 10 liberated nations to its ranks. These countries have brought new enthusiasm and new vigor.”

“NATO’s door must remain open to other nations in Europe that share our love for liberty and demonstrate a commitment to reform and seek to strengthen their ties with the trans-Atlantic community.”

— U.S. President George W. Bush

“[NATO has] asked Russia to stop its criticism of the alliance effort and to join in the cooperative efforts that have been offered to it by the United States.”

enlarge

— U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice

Markéta Hulpachová can be reached at mhulpachova@praguepost.com

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