----- Original Message ----- From: Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, March 02, 2001 4:14 PM Subject: GERMANY CHANGES DIRECTION ON STAR WARS http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010228/1/io2z.html ================= + =============== Thursday March 1, 1:01 AM Germany would seek share in US missile shield: Schroeder BERLIN, Feb 28 (AFP) - Germany would seek to share in the economic and technological benefits of building a future US missile shield, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said in remarks released Wednesday. However according to the text of a television interview released by his office Wednesday, Schroeder added that this did not mean German approval of the US project to put up an anti-missile shield against attacks by so-called "rogue states." But "if something is done, then there is naturally for us an eminent economic interest," Schroeder said, in remarks first aired on the N24 television station late Monday. It was an apparent softening in German opposition to US NMD plans but a spokesman at the chancellor's office said Wednesday: "It is not a new position. "It is an attempt by the chancellor to consider one aspect of the discussion ... in such a project there are business interests," the spokesman said. Schroeder said in the interview that he wanted to know if in building the missile shield there would be "burden sharing" for the political and material burdens as well as participation in new technologies to be developed. The United States has proposed extending any shield to include its European allies. A "very important point" is "that we are not excluded from this technology and the knowlege of the technology," Schroeder said. At a recent international security conference in Munich, attended by new US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Schroeder had warned that NMD could lead to a new arms race. He also said that the objections of Russia and China, which claim the US project would violate a 1972 anti-ballistic missile treaty, should be taken into consideration. Schroeder repeated in the television interview said that Russia and China should not be isolated. The German leader is to meet with US President George W. Bush on March 29 in Washington, where NMD is to be at the top of the agenda. Berlin has made an effort to court the Bush administration and seek compromise on contentious issues. Bush has vowed to push ahead with a national missile defense system in order to protect the United States and its allies from the threat from so-called "rogue states" like Iran and North Korea. But US Secretary of State Colin Powell promised in Brussels Tuesday that Washington would do nothing on NMD without detailed consultations with all those concerned, particularly its NATO allies. "We are committed to close allied consultations to address these issues together prior to deciding on specific technologies or architecture," he said. In Munich earlier this month, Rumsfeld said the United States would consult its European allies before deploying missile defense shields, but he reaffirmed Bush's determination to go ahead with protection against attacks from rogue states such as Iraq or even individual terrorists, whatever Europe might think. On the first visit to Europe by a senior Bush administration official since the new president was sworn in on January 20, Rumsfeld said the United States was ready to help its allies "deploy such defenses." Copyright © 2000 AFP. All rights reserved. All information displayed in this section (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. -- Bruce K. Gagnon Coordinator Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space PO Box 90083 Gainesville, Fl. 32607 (352) 337-9274 http://www.space4peace.org [EMAIL PROTECTED]
