Bush Wins NATO Nod on Missile Defense

BUCHAREST, Romania-President Bush won NATO's endorsement Thursday for his plan to build a missile defense system in Europe over Russian objections. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called it a "breakthrough agreement" for the military alliance."Now it is clearly understood in the alliance that the challenges of the 21st century, the threats of the 21st century, make it necessary to have missile defense that can defend the countries of Europe," Rice told reporters at the NATO summit.Progress on missile defense represented perhaps the biggest boon to Bush from the NATO summit. Russia has fiercely opposed it.Rice also noted that NATO has "also asked Russia to stop its criticism of the alliance effort and to join in the cooperative efforts that have been offered to it by the United States."A NATO statement calls on the alliance to explore ways in which the planned U.S. project, to be based in Poland and the Czech Republic, can be linked with future missile shields elsewhere. It says leaders should come up with recommendations to be considered at their next meeting in 2009.The U.S. plan calls for 10 interceptor missiles based in Poland and a tracking radar site in the Czech Republic.At a news conference in Bucharest on the sidelines of the NATO summit, Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwartzenberg announced that negotiations with the Americans have been successfully completed and that a deal would be signed in early May.The Poles have yet to agree to the plan, but in Warsaw on Thursday, talks picked up between Polish and U.S. officials about it.The backing from NATO and the announcement with the Czechs provides Bush with a powerful leg up in his negotiations with Moscow over the issue.Bush is seeing Russian President Vladimir Putin twice this week—during the NATO summit and in one-on-one meetings planned for this weekend in Sochi, Russia. White House officials have talked optimistically in recent days that the weekend meeting could break the missile defense logjam.Rice said she was hopeful that Bush and Putin would agree on a broad framework for cooperation between the countries, but it was still unclear whether they would reach a deal on missile defense. The administration has worked to allay Russian leaders' fears that the system is a threat to them."We hope that we can move beyond that to an undertstanding that we will all have an interest in cooperation on missile defense," Rice said. "But we will see."
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8VQG7RG2&show_article=1

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