Prague - US plans to place a missile defence radar in the
Czech Republic cleared their first hurdle on Thursday, as the former
Soviet satellite's upper house passed the measure.
The 81-seat Senate passed two missile shield treaties in separate
49-32 votes, said the chamber's chairman, Premysl Sobotka.
The senators rejected opposition proposals to adjourn the vote or
put the accords under a review of the country's Constitutional Court.
The US project however faces obstacles in the closely-divided
lower house where the center-right government of Prime Minister Mirek
Topolanek has failed to garner clear support for it.
The main diplomatic accord and the agreement on US troop status
at the planned base also require presidential approval.
To Moscow's ire, the outgoing Bush administration would like to
erect a tracking radar for a European arm of its missile shield in a
military zone south-west of Prague, accompanied by 10 interceptor
missiles in Poland.
The Czech and Polish governments continue to back the plan, whose
future under the next US administration is unclear. US
president-elect Barack Obama has so far only said that he would
support the shield if it works.
The uncertainty means that Czech opponents of the plan have warned
against rushed voting in parliament.
In a bid to win over the plan's opponents, premier Topolanek said
earlier he would prefer the final lower house vote to take place
after Obama takes office on January 20.
Speaking before the Senate on Thursday, Topolanek said his
government's support for the radar base, which is unpopular with the
public, was a display of statesmanlike providence.
'I have to say I do not know a more stupid sentence from the
security perspective than this one: 'Nobody is threatening us, so why
build defences?'' he said.
Topolanek reiterated that he sees the project as a safeguard
against Russia, which has strongly opposed the US plans in the former
Eastern Bloc countries, now members of the European Union and the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
'It is entirely unacceptable for me to become the premier of the
government that will obediently stand to attention and again open the
door to Russian imperialism,' he said.
Russia has called the shield a danger to its own security and has
threatened to aim its short-range missiles at the central European
bases.
The outgoing Bush administration has so far failed to convince
Moscow that the bases are to protect most of the continent from
potential Iranian long-range missiles.
USA
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