[ALBSA-Info] Solana: U.S. Can Deploy Shield

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

Solana: U.S. Can Deploy Shield

By BARRY SCHWEID
.c The Associated Press

  
WASHINGTON (AP) - The European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, 
said Monday the United States cannot be deterred from deploying a national 
missile defense despite misgivings among the allies and Russia. 

``The United States has the right to deploy,'' Solana told reporters before 
meetings with Secretary of State Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, the 
national security assistant to President Bush. 

But on an equally touchy issue, Europe's determination to create its own 
military corps to respond to crises, Solana was unyielding. He said the 
principle was established a decade ago when Bush's father was president and 
reaffirmed several times at summits in the Clinton years. 

``We don't have to create a fuss about something that is not new,'' he said 
over breakfast in a hotel near the White House. 

Later, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said ``we just haven't 
reached full agreement within NATO and between NATO and the European Union on 
how some of these mechanisms should work.'' 

Boucher said Powell wanted to know whether the force would be a complement to 
NATO and whether the Europeans would pay for it. He said Powell wanted to 
make sure ``that we not try to duplicate the capabilities of NATO.'' 

The two troublesome issues were aired at a two-day conference in Munich, 
Germany, last weekend amid signs the United States and its allies were being 
driven apart. 

``These are very manageable problems,'' Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., said 
after the Conference on Security Policy. ``We ought to relax and talk it 
through.'' 

Other observers were not so sanguine even though Defense Secretary Donald 
Rumsfeld offered to help the Europeans with a missile defense while the Bush 
administration proceeds with trying to erect a shield against what it says 
are potential threats from North Korea, Iran and Iraq. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin's national security assistant, Sergei B. 
Ivanov, said a vast missile defense program would undermine international 
stability and touch off an arms race, including one in outer space. Europeans 
also have been critical. 

Solana, taking a softer tone, said Monday the Europeans want to get involved 
in a dialogue with the Bush administration about the program. And, in a 
conciliatory gesture, the Spanish diplomat said the Anti-Ballistic Missile 
Treaty, which prohibited a national missile defense, was between the United 
States and the Soviet Union, not Europe, and was revised in 1974. ``It's not 
a Bible,'' he said. 

Indeed, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Bush ``intends to pursue 
that matter in consultation with our allies. He believes it's a very 
effective way to protect America and our allies.'' 

Powell indicated at his Senate confirmation hearing last month that the 
administration would approach Russia about changing the treaty to fit U.S. 
plans and would consider reducing the U.S. arsenal of offensive nuclear 
weapons. 

While acknowledging the United States has the authority to go ahead with an 
anti-missile defense, Solana said the program ``has consequences that go far 
beyond it.'' 

Urging more trans-Atlantic consultation, Solana, a former NATO 
secretary-general, said, ``We have to start talking and I hope whatever is 
done is beneficial to the alliance and to the stability of the world.'' 

Meanwhile, defending the European plan to establish a rapid reaction military 
force headed by a European commander, Solana said it would not threaten the 
unity of the NATO military alliance, 

``I don't perceive any especially negative attitude'' from the Bush 
administration, he said, 

The force would help avert the sort of ``catastrophe'' that occurred in 
Bosnia, Solana said, and spare the United States getting involved in every 
crisis. Besides, he said, ``It is part of the strategic concept of NATO.'' 

Even so, at Munich, serious questions were raised about the U.S. and European 
plans. 

``The question is, is the Atlantic relationship considered a safety net which 
puts a floor on the risks under which everyone is free to pursue his own 
national interests even at the expense of other allies?'' former Secretary of 
State Henry Kissinger asked. 

``Or is it an organization that is jointly attempting to pursue common 
objectives?'' 

Boucher, on Monday, said reports that the United States and Europe were 
drawing apart were old hat. 

``We seem to be in another period where people are writing that. And as with 
the last 50 years, we'll probably get through it with the strong and positive 
relationship that we continue to have with Europe,'' he said.