PRESIDENT BARACK Obama’s decision to scrap George W Bush’s missile defence shield for eastern Europe yesterday won praise from Moscow and was roundly condemned by the Republican opposition.
Mr Obama announced the move in an unscheduled speech broadcast live from the White House, after Czech prime minister Jan Fischer told reporters the US leader had called him after midnight to break the news. The missile defence shield was to have cost up to $8 billion (€5.5 billion) and included a radar station in the Czech Republic and 10 ground-based interceptor (GBI) missiles in Poland.
Mr Obama said he based what is one of the most significant foreign and defence policy shifts of his administration on revised intelligence information. The system was to have protected the east coast of the US from a possible Iranian missile strike, as well as Europe and the Middle East.
But, Mr Obama said, new intelligence shows the long-range missile threat from Iran to be less than was thought, while the danger from short- and medium-range missiles has increased.
“Our new missile defence architecture in Europe will provide stronger, smarter and swifter defences of American forces and America’s allies,” Mr Obama promised, paradoxically presenting the cancellation as “strengthening missile defence in Europe”. He emphasised the need to use “technology that is both proven and cost-effective”.
There have been tensions between Mr Obama and the US defence establishment over his eagerness to pursue disarmament.
Mr Obama stressed that his decision was based on the “unanimous recommendations of my secretary of defence and my joint chiefs of staff”. A relic of Ronald Reagan’s strategic defence initiative (commonly known as “Star Wars”), the European missile shield was largely untested and there were doubts about its efficacy.
The US will instead deploy the sea-based Aegis system and smaller, more reliable Standard Missile-3 in four phases starting in 2011.
Russia vehemently opposed the missile shield, which it regarded as an infringement of its sphere of influence. President Dmitri Medvedev will meet Mr Obama privately on the sidelines of the UN general assembly in New York next week.
Mr Medvedev called the decision a “responsible move”, but Mr Obama’s Republican opponents said it was a huge concession to Moscow with no guarantee that Russia will help Washington stop the Iranian nuclear programme.
Others warned that the decision could weaken US ties with central Europe and embolden hawkish elements in Russia. Former Czech prime minister Mirek Topolanek said the decision signalled “a softer position of the US administration in negotiating with Russia”.