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Reaction to new missile defense plan

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The World’s Gerry Hadden reports on reaction in Eastern Europe and Russia to President Obama’s decision to switch course on a missile defense program for Europe.

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MARCO WERMAN: Well, so far reaction in Russia and in Europe to a change in course ranges from approval to disappointment.  The World’s Gerry Hadden reports.

GERRY HADDEN: The farther east in Europe you go, the greater that disappointment.  The Bush Administration had pressed both the Polish and Czech governments to host the missile shield system, and those governments in turn sold the plan at home.  Now they’re not only losing the system, they’re also losing face with voters.  Today, the Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer tried to put a positive spin on the news.

JAN FISCHER: [In Czechoslovakian]

HADDEN: He said we expect that the US will cooperate with the Czech Republic in the future on agreements on scientific and military cooperation, including financing concrete projects.  He said, “I asked for that in my telephone conversation with President Obama, and he assured me the U.S. will not change its approach in this matter.”  Eastern European countries are wary of a resurgent Russia.  But just what form any future U.S. military cooperation might take remains to be seen.  Poland reacted more strongly to today’s news.  Today is the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland at the start of the Second World War.  One top Polish defense official called Mr. Obama’s decision not to place missiles on Polish soil “a failure in long-term thinking.”  On the other side of the continent, Western European countries had long been skeptical of the missile shield, questioning its technology, and its destructive effect on relations with Russia.  Russia complained that the shield represented a direct threat to its own defense capabilities.  Today, senior Russian M.P. Konstantin Kosachev said his country welcomes America’s decision to abandon the shield.  He suggested the Bush Administration had been tone deaf when it came to Russia’s concerns on key issues.

KONSTANTIN KOSACHEV: [In Russian]

TRANSLATOR: We never doubted that Russia was justified in standing up for a more objective assessment of the situation in Iran and a more serious and responsible attitude to the strategic dialogue between Russia and the United States.  In both these positions the Bush Administration categorically did not understand us.  As far as I can judge by today’s decision the Obama Administration is beginning to understand us.

HADDEN: Analysts say it’s too early to tell just what Russia might offer the West in return for scrapping the shield. Michael Emerson is with the Center for European Policy Studies in Brussels.  He says he doesn’t expect Russia to concede much.

MICHAEL EMERSON: Russia may consider this a great diplomatic victory which will embolden

them to pursuing further their policies of more or less aggression towards near or abroad country.

HADDEN: Not against Eastern Europe or NATO members, Emerson says, but closer to home against Ukraine or Georgia, both anxious NATO candidates.  For The World I’m Gerry Hadden

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