CzechRep ready to participate in new anti-missile system

Biden said a team of experts will arrive in Prague in November to negotiate about the architecture of the new shield that will replace the system within which a radar base was to be built on Czech soil.

Fischer said Prague will only be looking for its place in the architecture of the new format of anti-missile defence and it will be giving it a concrete shape depending on what information it will be receiving.

He said the whole system is now being built primarily as an Alliance project.

The United States perceives the Czech Republic that has been building democracy for 20 years as a sufficiently mature country to make a decision on its participation in the system by itself, Biden said.

He said building defence for European countries as well is a goal of the system.

Biden discussed on Wednesday the new system in Poland where a base with interceptor missiles was to be built.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said his country is ready to join the plans.

Biden said in Prague today the number of missiles that are capable of hitting Europe is growing.

He said the new system is proposed to cover a greater part of Europe, including the Czech Republic, more effectively than the previous system would have done.

Biden said the new proposed form of the missile shield is to avert new missile threats in the future.

Fischer told that Biden the Czech Republic accepted the decision by U.S. President Barack Obama´s administration to quit the original planes "practically with calm."

The Czech government signed two treaties with the United States on the building of the radar base on Czech soil.

The radar and the ten missiles in Poland were to protect the United States and a big part of Europe against the alleged threat of Iranian long-range missiles.

Russia was strongly opposed to the plans that it considers to be mainly pointed against its security.

Besides the two major treaties on the radar base, Czech diplomacy also started to negotiate about a number of other agreements, for instance, on cooperation in education, science and research.

Fischer told journalists he mentioned this in his talks with Biden and that the U.S. side is interested in continuing cooperating in military and civilian projects and possibly opening new ones.

Fischer said this is not to be "a one-way moving of know-how from the United States to the Czech Republic."

He spoke about active participation of Czech scientists who are capable of offering "their talent, abilities and know-how" even in space research.

Fischer said he discussed with Biden the opening of an office in Prague that would be in charge of "direct contact in this field."

Fischer said the respective agreement on a firm framework for scientific cooperation will be signed soon.

Biden praised the Czech Republic for its contribution to NATO and military contribution to Allied effort in Afghanistan. On behalf of Obama he thanked the deployed soldiers and their families.

Fischer and Biden also spoke about a new NATO strategic concept for the 21st century that could have a markedly Czech emphasis.

This is so thanks to the participation of the former U.S. secretary of state, Czech-born Madeleine Albright, who chairs a committee of experts advising the Alliance on the strategy.

Biden said Ukraine and Georgia consider the Czech Republic a model of democracy for which they are heading.

He said five years have passed since the Czech Republic´s EU entry, ten years since NATO entry and 20 years since the Velvet Revolution.

Biden and Fischer also discussed energy security and diversification of energy sources.

Autor: ČTK
www.ctk.cz