Washington, September 20: The US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has rejected the suggestion that scrapping a planned anti-ballistic missile (ABM) system in Eastern Europe was a concession to Russia.
In an opinion article on the New York Times, Gates said on September 19 that it was a distortion to call a new plan “some sort of concession to Russia.”
His remarks were in response to critics of Washington’s new ABM plan for Europe.
Earlier, GOP Senator John McCain called the new plan “misguided” and said it was a concession to Russia and an abrogation of an agreement between the US, the Czech Republic and Poland.
In August 2008, former president George W. Bush inked a deal with Poland for sitting the system’s interceptors in that country, and with the Czech Republic to build a radar station in its territory to counter what the Bush administration claimed was a threat from Iranian long-range missiles.
Russia had protested against the implementation of the US plan deeming it as a threat to its national interest saying the missile system right on our border would disturb the balance of nuclear forces by giving the US a survivable ‘first strike’ capability.
To counter the threat, Moscow said it would deploy the Iskander ballistic missiles in the Kaliningrad region near Poland.
After US President Barrack Obama announced that Washington has cancelled the hugely expensive plan in Eastern Europe, the Russian Deputy Defense Minister Vladimir Popovkin said his country decided the deployment of the Iskander missile launchers near Poland was no longer necessary.
The developments did not go well with Poland with its Foreign Minister Radek Sikorsky describing the timing of the announcement as “clumsy”, noting that the cancellation came on the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of his country during World War II.
Washington says it has new schemes to replace the old missile program, utilizing ship-based interceptors.
“I believe this is a very pragmatic proposal. I have found since taking this post that when it comes to missile defense, some hold a view bordering on theology that regards any change of plans or any cancellation of a program as abandonment or even breaking faith,” Gates said.
—–Agencies