MISSILE DEFENCE SYSTEM: Shelved in Europe

US President Barack Obama has shelved plans for controversial bases in Poland and the Czech Republic in a major overhaul of missile defence in Europe. The bases are to be scrapped after a review of the threat from Iran.

Mr Obama said there would be a “proven, cost-effective” system using land- and sea-based interceptors against Iran’s short- and medium-range missile threat. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has welcomed the US decision, calling it a “responsible move”. Russia had always seen the shield as a threat.

However, there has been criticism of the decision in conservative circles in the US. The US signed a deal in August 2008 with Poland to site 10 interceptors at a base near the Baltic Sea, and with the Czech Republic to build a radar station on its territory.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, speaking from the Pentagon immediately after the president’s announcement, denied the United States was “scrapping” missile defense.

“This new approach provides a better missile defense capability for our forces in Europe, for our European allies and eventually for our homeland than the program I recommended almost three years ago,” said Gates, who was defense chief in the last two years of the Bush administration and stayed on when Obama took office.

“Poles and Czechs worry that his decision signals a softening U.S. commitment to their security. Both countries saw the system as a way to tie themselves more closely to the United States and thereby deter an increasingly belligerent Russia,” he said.

“Critics will also insist that the Poles and Czechs are right: He axed the Bush program in a foolish and doomed bid to ‘reset’ relations with Russia,” he said. “Here Moscow isn’t likely to be of much help to the White House. The Kremlin will claim a diplomatic victory and it won’t offer any concessions in return.”

Obama has been seeking a stronger relationship with Russia and better cooperation from the Kremlin to support tough U.N. economic sanctions against Iran if it continues to pursue its nuclear ambitions.