Czech minister unsure missile shield will pass
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Czech Republic's foreign minister said on Wednesday he was unsure his country's parliament would approve deploying part of a U.S. missile shield while President George W. Bush is in office, if at all.
But in an interview with Reuters, Karel Schwarzenberg said he would offer to resign if the treaty fails to pass the Czech parliament.
"I do think I would have to go to the prime minister and offer," he said. Clinching the missile defense deal was one of his primary tasks as foreign minister. "If I don't succeed, I have to at least give a chance for the prime minister to find a better one," Schwarzenberg said.
Washington wants to install radar in the Czech Republic and 10 interceptor rockets in Poland, extending its shield against ballistic missiles that it says could be fired by "rogue" countries such as Iran and North Korea.
The administration would like to get the project under way before Bush steps down in January.
But Moscow strongly opposes the deployment of the missile shield on the territory of its formerly communist satellites. The program has run into opposition in both Poland and the Czech Republic, where polls say people are unconvinced of the need and worried about becoming a target.
Schwarzenberg said the treaty on the radar will be signed next month but it is unlikely the Czech parliament will take it up before mid-term elections in October.
He hopes it will be ratified by the end of this year, but "I am not sure if we will succeed."
"Definitely the majority of the population is against it," Schwarzenberg said, speaking in English at the Czech ambassador's residence in Washington.
He hoped enough members of parliament would realize that within a few years many countries would have missile-building know-how. "We have to prepare for that."
"Nobody loves to pay high insurance rates, but if there are a lot of burglars around the town, it's probably better to buy a good lock and have insurance," Schwarzenberg said.
UNCERTAINTY ABOUT POLAND
Schwarzenberg was also uncertain about whether Poland would follow through with its part of the missile shield deployment.
Warsaw has been trying to set conditions for basing the interceptor rockets on its soil, including that the United States spend substantial amounts on modernizing Polish air defenses. But U.S. officials think Poland has asked for too much, and warned the interceptors could be placed elsewhere.
If Poland backs out, "it would be lamentable, because I would really prefer to have Poland as our partner in this project. I hope very much that they will ... find a solution with the United States," Schwarzenberg said. Continued...
