U.S. plans to build a high-tech missile shield in Poland and
the Czech Republic are dangerous and absurd, former German Chancellor
Gerhard Schroeder said on Sunday.
“The missile defense system planned by the United States
and which is to be installed in eastern Europe is politically
extremely dangerous,” Schroeder said in a speech in Dresden.
“It is viewed, rightly, in Russia, and not only there,
as an attempt to establish an absurd encirclement policy, a policy
which is everything but in the interest of Europe,” he said.
The United States wants to set up a radar system in the Czech
Republic and a missile battery in Poland as part of a shield that
would counter missiles fired by what Washington calls “rogue
states” such as Iran and North Korea.
Moscow sees the system as an encroachment on its former sphere
of influence and an attempt to shift the post-Cold War balance
of power. Germany has criticized the project’s planners
for failing to discuss it sufficiently with Russia.
Schroeder said the missile shield plan was pushing Russia further
away from the West at a time when the European Union should be
trying to strengthen ties with Moscow.
“What we need instead is the exact opposite. Out of our
own interest we must align Russia as closely as possible to Europe
and European structures,” he said.
Schroeder has famously referred to Russia President Vladimir
Putin as an “impeccable democrat” in the past and
reiterated that view in interviews last year when his memoirs
were released.
Less than a month after leaving office in November 2005, Schroeder
took a position as chairman of a controversial German-Russian
gas pipeline consortium that he helped set up with Putin —-
a move for which he was sharply criticized.
Schroeder has a long history of criticizing the United States.
He was re-elected in 2002 largely due to his outspoken opposition
to U.S. President George W. Bush’s plans to invade Iraq.
