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US to give Czech ballistic missile defense

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-07-16 23:22

WASHINGTON  -- US Navy ships in the Mediterranean Sea will provide ballistic missile defense to the Czech Republic under a commitment contained in the agreement to place a US radar site in that country, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.

Under the agreement signed by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her Czech counterpart Karel Schwarzenberg in Prague last week, the US "is committed to the security of the Czech Republic and to protect and defend, by means of its ballistic missile defense system, the Czech Republic against a potential ballistic missile attack."

In remarks at the signing ceremony, Rice said the Czech-based US radar facility will "help protect" the Czech Republic when linked to an Aegis system, a sea-based antimissile system that combines radar and interceptors and is carried abroad a variety of US navy ships.

A Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday that an additional US system being developed to be based in Europe, the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), will also be available to protect the Czechs from any missile launched from Iran or any Middle East country.

Eventually, the intention is to link the Czech radar into a NATO missile defense system that is in the planning stage, the spokesman said.

The US-Czech missile defense deal means the stationing of foreign troops in the Czech Republic for the first time since the Soviet invasion of 1968.

Under the treaty, the United States can deploy up to 250 soldiers at the radar base, with one officer from the Czech Republic. But the US side would be in command of the base and responsible for its management.