Agence France-Presse, The Czech Republic will not bow to foreign pressure in deciding whether to install a tracking radar as part of a disputed anti-missile system the United States wants to deploy in eastern Europe, the prime minister said April 29.
“The Czech Republic will decide on this either through parliament or through a referendum involving its people, and not someone in Brussels or Moscow,” Mirek Topolanek was quoted as saying by the local CTK news agency.
The U.S. plan to station 10 interceptors in Poland and a tracking radar in the Czech Republic is being vehemently opposed by Russia.
Washington announced in January its hope to extend the so-far unproven missile defense shield to cover European allies, with the network due to become operational by 2013.
Russia fears the system could target its missile arsenal and start a new arms race. It disagrees with Washington’s assessment that Iran could obtain weapons within a decade that would have the range to strike at Europe.
Opinion polls indicate most Poles and Czechs oppose the plan and some NATO allies also express reservations, although U.S. officials say these have largely been addressed in a series of meetings with top U.S officials in recent weeks.
Henry Obering, who oversees the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency, evoked the “increasing threat of Iranian missiles” during a visit to Prague on April 23
