NATO allies still sceptical on US missile defence Brussels (dpa) - NATO defence ministers Thursday remained deeply sceptical over United States' missile defence plans, saying Washington must use diplomacy, not just missiles, to counter security threats from so-called rogue states. "Missile defence is not the only response" to security risks posed by countries like North Korea and Iran, which Washington defines as "nations of concern," French Defence Minister Alain Richard told reporters at a NATO defence ministers meeting. "There is also political dialogue," Richard said after U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld outlined Washington's controversial missile defence plans to NATO allies. Also, both Tehran and Pyongyang were in the process of "evolution" in their approach to security and defence issues, the French defence chief argued. As such any threat they posed needed to be carefully evaluated and defined, he said. "We have to decide what the threat is," Richard stressed, adding: "We are not alone in saying much work and exchange of information still needs to be done." An equally unconvinced German Defence Minister Rudolf Scharping described Washington's missile defence plan as a "sketchy" concept which left many questions unanswered. Current consultations with allies should be used to find solutions which promote arms control and ensure non-proliferation, Scharping told reporters. French and German doubts were echoed by other NATO nations, said diplomats. Washington's NATO partners believed missile defence "could be one way to address new circumstances and threats but not necessarily the only way," said a NATO diplomat. "The view is that this needs to be approached from different angles ... also through dialogue and diplomacy and by beefing up non- proliferation treaties," the diplomat added. But Rumsfeld made it clear that Europe's misgivings would not throw Washington's plans off course. The U.S. was testing a range of new technologies and assets which required "moving beyond" the 1972 anti-ballistic missile treaty, he told NATO ministers. "The treaty stands in the way of a 21st Century approach to deterrence," Rumsfeld insisted. "Deploying missile defences capable of protecting the U.S., friends and allies will eventually require moving beyond the anti- ballistic missile treaty," he said. "Testing is how we learn. Testing leads to knowledge," Rumsfeld underlined, adding: "We intend to build and deploy defences to protect the U.S. and our forward deployed forces." Sceptical allies would be consulted on the U.S. plans but Washington would not be deterred from its determination to fight off new security threats, Rumsfeld said. The U.S. defence chief urged NATO to prepare the "newer security challenges we will certainly face in the 21st century." Western democracies were at risk from terrorist groups, cyber attacks and high-tech weapons but also from ballistic and cruise missiles and weapons of mass destruction, he warned. "Our lack of defences against ballistic missiles creates incentives for missile proliferation which ... give future adversaries the ability to hold our populations hostage to terror and blackmail," Rumsfeld insisted. Washington's future plans included the deployment of "layered defences" to intercept relatively small numbers of ballistic missiles "of various ranges in various phases of flight," he said. The development programme would test a range of U.S. technologies and approaches and also Washington's planning assets and deployed capabilities, Rumsfeld told NATO. "Our goal is to deploy defences against handfuls of missiles, not hundreds," he underlined, adding that the U.S. would not make decisions on a final systems "architecture" until the technologies had been tested. European unease over the U.S. security review are expected to be conveyed directly to President George W. Bush at the NATO summit in Brussels on June 13. (2001/06/08,13:27) Copyright(c) Deutsche Presse-agentur All rights reserved English chatroom Send to your friend Miroslav Antic, http://www.antic.org/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
