3RD LD: Putin proposes using Azeri radar for missile defense
Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed Thursday that the United States and Russia jointly use a radar system in the central Asian country of Azerbaijan to erect a missile shield that would protect all of Europe.
Putin said Moscow will drop its opposition to the planned missile shield in central Europe and that he will not seek to retarget his country’s missiles on Europe as he threatened to if Washington accepts his proposal.
”Vladimir and I just had a very constructive dialogue, particularly about missile defense,” U.S. President George W. Bush told reporters after emerging from talks with Putin.
Bush had earlier proposed basing a radar system in the Czech Republic, and rockets in Poland, but Putin offered a counterproposal that the United States install the radar system in Azerbaijan instead, and said it was premature to talk about rockets.
Putin’s counterproposal features using a radar station in Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic, which Russia rents. Azerbaijan is willing to let the United States and Russia use it together if it helps promote global security and stability, he said.
”This will make it possible for us not to change our policy on targeting our missiles,” the Russian leader said. ”On the contrary, this will create the necessary grounds for common work.”
The two men also agreed to set up a working group to deepen talks on the missile shield issue, with technical experts from both nations looking into who will be participants in it and when its meetings will take place.
”We both agreed to have a strategic dialogue,” Bush said.
Bush and Putin met on the fringes of the annual summit of the Group of Eight nations in the Baltic resort of Heiligendamm, Germany, amid tensions over the U.S. plans to build a missile shield in central Europe.
Bush described the Russian president’s proposal as ”interesting” and said he will discuss the issue again with Putin during two days of talks starting July 1 in Kennebunkport, Maine, at the Bush family’s oceanfront compound.
”We think it was a positive development and offered the prospect of kind of bridging the gap on this issue,” said Bush’s National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley.
Asked if Putin would tolerate the stationing of interceptors in Poland, Hadley said the Russian leader sees that part of the project as unnecessary at this juncture in the absence of imminent threats.
”His view is that the deployment of interceptors at his point is premature, because the long-range missiles that they would be designed against have not yet emerged,” he said.
Tensions were growing between the United States and Russia because of the plans. Putin recently likened the Bush administration to the Third Reich, and last week he denounced the United States for ”imperialism.”
Though Washington says the missile defense shield plans are intended to counter threats from ”rogue” states such as North Korea or Iran, Putin warned Monday that Moscow could redeploy missiles aimed at targets in Europe in retaliation.
Bush had tried several times to calm Russia’s anger over the U.S. plans in the past couple of days. He said Wednesday that Russia is ”not our enemy” and is ”not going to attack Europe.” He also said Thursday, ”This is not an issue to be hyperventilating about.”
Russia is not alone in opposing the project. Opinion polls in the Czech Republic, a former Soviet satellite but now a democratic North Atlantic Treaty Organization ally, show more than two-thirds of the public are against the plans.
However, Bush and Czech President Vaclav Klaus and Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek reaffirmed during their talks in Prague on Tuesday that they will join forces to proceed with the anti-missile system project.
The first round of negotiations on a missile defense system between the United States and the Czech Republic was held last week, followed by the opening of similar talks between the United States and Poland earlier this week.
In addition to missile defense, Bush criticized Russia on the issue of democracy during his stay in Prague on Tuesday. ”In Russia, reforms that once promised to empower citizens have been derailed, with troubling implications for democratic development,” he said.
Bush is visiting Germany on the second leg of his eight-day, seven-nation European tour ending next Monday. He made a trip to the Czech Republic earlier this week, and will visit Poland and other nations from Friday.