LaHood, Tauscher to visit Czech Republic

Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs Ellen Tauscher will arrive on November 16 and she will be followed by Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood.

The server Aktualne.cz said the high-level group for military cooperation will be headed by Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Alexander Vershbow.

The experts will discuss Czech participation in the new architecture of defence against short- and middle range missiles with their opposite numbers from the Czech Defence Ministry.

The USA wants to build the system in cooperation with NATO. The concrete form of Czech participation in the new project remains unclear.

According to the U.S. media, Tauscher recently said the command for the managing and control of elements of the new version of anti-missile defence could be stationed in the Czech Republic.

Czech diplomacy has said it has not received any concrete proposal from the Americans and Biden did not mention in either while in Prague.

The Americans will now discuss the alternatives of the Czech military's participation in the new planned system.

Biden assured Czech senior officials that Washington was not abandoning Central Europe after it had dropped the plans of the George W. Bush administration to station a radar base on Czech soil and a base for interceptor missiles in Poland. The plans were strongly opposed by Russia.

Prague's position on the original plans was not unambiguous either as the Czech parliament has not ratified the Czech-U.S. treaties on the radar's location.

Autor: ČTK
www.ctk.cz