Czechs could host missile defence command and control centre

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kohout said on Sunday that the Czech Republic was in talks about possibly hosting a command and control centre for a future NATO missile defence system in the country. Mr Kohout said in a television interview on Sunday that talks had been opened with the US about such a possibility. The idea of radar or interceptor missiles being sited in the Czech Republic had not been broached, he added. Their location would be the subject for future discussions once the architecture of a new anti-missile system was better established, he said. The US announced at the end of last year that it had dropped plans for developing an anti-missile defence system bilaterally with the Czech Republic and Poland. The plans had been fiercely opposed by Russia. But Washington still wants to proceed with a NATO system for Europe.