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US does not exclude Lithuania as alternate missile site
Washington (AFP) June 17, 2008 The United States said Tuesday it still hoped for a deal to deploy US missile defenses in Poland, but did not exclude Lithuania as a future alternate site if those talks failed. State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said arms control expert John Rood was in Lithuania two weeks ago to brief officials there on the status of negotiations with Warsaw. "I think that would be an overstatement of any conversations we might have had with the government of Lithuania," Casey told reporters when asked if Lithuania was being considered an alternative site if US-Polish talks failed. "The important thing here is we are continuing our discussions with the Poles and we think we are very close to an agreement. We do expect it will work out so I don't think there's going to be a need for an alternate site," Casey said. He said Rood had a "general discussion about our missile defense plans and our intentions, and the status of negotiations in Poland was one of a whole wide variety of issues he was discussing." As a neighbor of Poland, Lithuania is "concerned about the potential threats that are out there," he noted. "So it would be wrong to say that we have begun discussions, negotiations, or any other kind of formal contact with Lithuania about them or any other country as alternate site," Casey said. Rood, acting under secretary of state for arms control and international security, "largely briefed them on the discussions and on the status of discussions in Poland," Casey said when pressed further on the topic of talks. "I certainly can't tell you whether the Lithuanians raised any other issues from their side but neither the purpose of his (Rood's) visit nor his discussions were to establish an alternate negotiating track," he said. Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon spokesman, also said Washington still hoped for a deal with Poland. "But we have always said that there are other options available to us. There are several European nations that could host the (missile) interceptors and Lithuania is one of them," Morrell told reporters. "That said we haven't entered in negotiations with any other country and hope that it doesn't become necessary," Morrell said. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said last month that Poland and the United States disagreed over the impact of a planned US missile shield on Poland's security should Warsaw agree to the installation. Washington wants to put 10 missile silos in Poland and radar in the neighboring Czech Republic as part of its missile shield to defend against "rogue" states such as Iran. Russia is vehemently opposed to the US missile shield, which Moscow considers a major security threat. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Share This Article With Planet Earth
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The Russian US ABM Deadlock Continues Part Two
Moscow (UPI) Jun 13, 2008 There is one contradiction in the rhetoric of Russian military leaders. For more than two years, they have been saying that Russia's strategic interests will be threatened if the United States deploys missile defense elements in Europe or elsewhere. |
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