Czech representative likely at anti-missile operation centre

Czech Ambassador to NATO Stefan Fuele told reporters after visiting the Missile Defense Integration and Operations Center (MDIOC) at the Schriever air force base, Colorado Springs, on Thursday that it is likely the Czech Republic will have its own representative at the site in connection with a planned US radar base on Czech soil. Mr Fuele visited the site along with Czech Defence Minister Vlasta Parkánová and the army chief-of-staff Vlastimil Picek. The US centre is to assess information on the radar base to be built roughly 70 kilometres southwest of the Czech capital. The centre's employees are said to be testing model simulations of the missile defence system; Mr Fuele made clear it was in Czech interest to have a representative on site. The US radar base in the Czech Republic is aimed to complement a missile base in Poland as part of the US defence shield.