Warsaw, 15 November 2010 - MISSILE DEFENCE COULD BE “NEW GLUE” FOR ALLIANCE, NATO PARLIAMENTARIANS SAY

The project, consisting of US ship-based missiles in the Mediterranean Sea, could provide a “new glue” among the Allies, he told the parliamentarians gathered for the Assembly’s 56th annual session in Warsaw.  It was particularly reassuring to newer member states as a confirmation of the Alliance ’s article 5 obligations concerning collective security.

In Poland, public opinion was shifting further in favour of the project, Dr Kulesa said. Whereas Poles had been evenly divided about the merits of the missile shield as first developed with previous US president George W Bush, since the 2008 conflict between Georgia and Russia, only 20 per cent opposed the project, he said. 

In addition, he said that the revised sea-based version put forward under current US President Barack Obama was seen as less provocative towards former Cold War foes than the original proposal, which provided for missile silos and radars in the former Soviet satellite states of Poland and the Czech Republic.  

The new project’s acceptability to Russia could open the door to cooperation with Moscow on the missile shield, and by extension on other issues of critical importance to the Alliance, US Democrat David Scott told the Committee.  Presenting his report titled Nuclear/WMD Proliferation and Missile Defence: Forging a Strategic Partnership with Russia, Scott said that wider cooperation with Russia was a “pragmatic necessity” in dealing with a number of challenges, including nuclear security.

The report was adopted without any objections, including from the Russian delegation who participated in the Committee as associate members.

Delegates were under no illusions as to the difficulties and limitations of such cooperation, however.  Dr Kulesa said a fully joint operation was a “tempting vision”, but not yet possible. A more “realistic option”, he said, would be cooperation which respected the autonomy of decision-making on both sides, while making full use of Russia’s valuable contributions in the fields of system development and air defence expertise.

The missile shield also had the potential to contribute to the objective of global nuclear disarmament, as advocated by the Global Zero plan announced by President Obama in late 2009, delegates were told.  The initiative was becoming “less and less of a buzzword in the international political discourse”, Scott said, adding that he hoped the project could help keep diplomatic focus on the issue.

Additionally, by reducing the effectiveness of a nuclear missile threat, missile defence could encourage global actors to move away from nuclear weapons, said Polish Ambassador Jacek Bylica, head of the NATO WMD Non-Proliferation Centre.

However, he stressed the importance of balancing disarmament with maintaining credible deterrents. “Determining this mix is a challenge,” he said, but it was not impossible. 

The Committee also called on the US and Russia to ratify the New START Treaty (for STrategic Arms Reduction Treaty), which Presidents Obama and Dmitri Medvedev signed in April. The new agreement provides for deeper cuts in the two countries’ nuclear arsenals, building on previous deals.