NATO: anti-missile defence a bilateral issue

Plans to expand the US anti-missile defence shield to central Europe is an issue strictly between the United States, the Czech Republic and Poland, NATO spokesman James Appathurai told journalists on Tuesday. He also referred to the conclusions of NATO’ Bucharest Summit, held in April this year, where NATO member states acknowledged the reality of a missile threat and agreed that an anti-missile defence shield was “appropriate”. The reassurance came days after the EU-Russia summit during which French President Nicolas Sarkozy told Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev that the planned shield would not enhance European security. The Russian president had threatened earlier that if the US went ahead with plans to deploy a radar base in the Czech Republic and a launching pad with intercepting missiles in Poland his country would position missiles in the Kaliningrad area in retaliation.