POLAND AND the Czech Republic have dismissed an appeal by French president Nicolas Sarkozy to freeze talks on their plans to host a controversial US missile defence shield, which Russia fiercely opposes, writes Daniel McLaughlin
Moscow has threatened to station missiles in its Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad - wedged between EU and Nato members Poland and Lithuania - if the US plan goes ahead, and Russian president Dmitry Medvedev appeared to have persuaded Mr Sarkozy of the delicacy of the issue at Friday's EU-Russia meeting in Nice.
"As president of the European Union, I proposed that in mid-2009 we meet . . . to lay the foundation for what could be the future of European security. Between now and then, don't talk about deployment of a missile shield which does nothing to bring security and complicates things," Mr Sarkozy said after talks with Mr Medvedev.
Warsaw and Prague were displeased at Mr Sarkozy's intervention, however, which comes amid speculation over whether incoming US president Barack Obama will support the missile shield, and as the Czech Republic prepares to replace France as EU president in January.
"As far as the French presidency mandate for the EU-Russia summit goes, it did not contain any mention of the US anti-missile shield," said Czech deputy prime minister Alexandr Vondra.
"France has never consulted such a standpoint with us [and] it's been a different vein than what the conclusions of the Bucharest summit said," he noted, referring to a meeting of Nato leaders in April which endorsed plans for the missile shield.
Former dissident playwright and Czech president Vaclav Havel also weighed in, saying he was "surprised" and "uneasy" about Mr Sarkozy's comments.
In Poland, prime minister Donald Tusk issued a frosty response to the French leader's plea for a moratorium on missile shield talks.
"President Sarkozy has expressed his own point of view. It will have no impact on the future of the project," he said.
"The question of the anti-missile shield is governed by an agreement between Poland and the United States. It is above all an American project," Mr Tusk added.
"I don't think that third countries, even such good friends as France, can have a particular right to express themselves on this issue."
Mr Sarkozy appeared subsequently to soften his line on the subject, saying in Washington that "each country has the right to decide whether or not to install an anti-missile shield".