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The Global Security Newswire has collected quotes from Czech Republic Vaclav Klaus about the agreement between his country and the U.S. to build a missile defense shield.

In light of President Barack Obama’s intent to renege on the agreement, Klaus hopes to meet with him to discuss the matter. He told the Washington Times, “I understand all presidents have their domestic priorities, and I understand the economic problems are more important to him now.”

The U.S. also agreed to build a missile defense shield in Poland. President Lech Kaczynski said missile defense is important for his country and expects Obama to uphold the agreement both countries signed last year.

 
**In an op-ed in the Opinion Journal, former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton writes about President-Elect Obama’s visit to Polish President Lech Kaczynski, which we briefly mentioned this week. Bolton noted that although Obama didn’t commit to the planned missile defense shield in Poland, Kaczynski is under the impression that the project will move forward. In fact, Obama was explicit about not committing.

“Mr. Obama contradicted a head of state, clinging to a campaign position that could most kindly be described as weak and ambiguous,” Bolton writes. “The statement also reflected a naiveté in the structuring of such transition conversations — and future dealings with truly unfriendly foreign leaders — that could have been avoided.”

**On Wednesday, India successfully test-fired a surface-to-surface missile called Shourya, which has a range of 375 miles. The missile was fired from Balasore in eastern Orissa state. The missile is designed to protect against attacks from Pakistan, India’s rival. The two countries engaged in battle three times since gaining independent from Great Britain in 1947. Since 1994, they’ve held peace talks. (AP)

**On that same day, Iran test-fired a new missile (successfully?), which has a range close to 1,200 miles. With that capacity, the missile can reach Israel and U.S. bases in the Gulf region. The U.S. suspects Iran may be building atomic weapons, which Iran denies. Although our new president has been critical of the current president’s policy, he has not ruled out “military action” should the U.S. discover that Iran is covertly building a nuclear arsenal. (Reuters)

 
On Saturday, Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State, and Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, discussed our country’s missile defense plans in Europe.

Russia says it will deploy short-range ballistic missiles on its western border around Kaliningrad if the U.S. installs missile defense bases in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Despite Secretary Rice’s attempts to ease Russia’s concerns about the bases, the Kremlin has rejected the proposals, but may revisit them once President-Elect Barack Obama takes office, according to Reuters. This rejection comes even after the U.S. offered to allow Russia to inspect the bases.

Russia believes the bases are a threat but “is ready to cooperate with the United States on European security but considers the proposals that were sent are insufficient.”

So all it not lost, it appears.

During the campaign, Obama said he would make sure the missile defense systems worked before deployment, and Congress held off on funding the projects until both countries’ parliaments ratified the agreements.

If the Czech Republic doesn’t allow its planned base, Poland may not get its base. Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski said, “Without a radar in the Czech Republic, the base in Poland will be useless…So the date for starting work on the base is not determined by the speed of our negotiations or by our ratification. The Czech ratification is its necessary condition.” (AP)

Polish President Lech Kaczynski and Obama met to discuss Poland’s missile defense shield. While Kaczynski believes the project will move forward, Obama has not committed to it. (AP)

Earlier this week, we blogged about the impact Russia’s invasion of Georgia had on missile defense negotiations between Poland and the U.S.

There was friction between President Lech Kaczynski and Prime Minister Donald Tusk over whether to allow the U.S. to install missile interceptors in Poland. 

However, recent hostilities in Eastern Europe put negotiations on a fast track. On August 11, the Polish government dismissed Deputy Foreign Minister Witold Waszczkowski, and yesterday, Poland and the U.S. reached an agreement on the missile interceptors.

According to the Associated Press, Russia is “infuriated” about the deal. Tusk reportedly said that NATO “would be too slow” to respond to a threat and opted to work directly with the U.S. to protect the country against possible attack by Russia.
 
The U.S. and the Czech Republic reached a radar installation agreement last month.
 
(Source: AP - Photo source: AP/Alik Keplicz)