US missile plan 'dangerous'
2007-09-08 21:47
Moscow - US plans to site parts of a
missile defence shield in Poland and the Czech Republic are
"politically dangerous", former German Chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder said on Saturday.
"From my point of view the missile defence system is
politically dangerous. It is perceived as an attempt to isolate
Russia, which is not in Europe's political interests," said
Schroeder, who is a personal friend of President Vladimir Putin.
"It is Germany's responsibility ... to persuade the United
States to abandon these plans," he said at a round table
discussion with political analysts and journalists.
Schroeder, who formed his friendship with Putin as
chancellor, was promoting a Russian edition of his book
Decisions - My Life in Politics, which lavishes praise on the
policies of the Kremlin chief.
The United States wants to base interceptor missiles and a
radar system in Poland and the Czech Republic, saying it needs
protection against missile attacks from what it terms "rogue
states" like Iran and North Korea.
Russia has reacted furiously, saying the plan will upset a
delicate strategic balance between major powers and poses a
threat to its own security. Schroeder said the plan was not in
the European Union's interests either.
"It is presented as though the plans are the business of the
countries involved and the Americans. But they concern Europe as
a whole," Schroeder said, adding the EU should brush aside
"narrow-minded nationalistic interests".
Schroeder, who now chairs a German-Russian consortium
building a major gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea, is one of
only a few Western politicians to publicly side with Russia on
many political issues.
Relations deteriorated
Although trade and investment are booming, diplomatic
relations between Russia and the European Union have
deteriorated sharply over the past year.
This is partly because of Russia's squabbles with the
union's new members such as Poland, which were once part of the
Soviet bloc and are now wary of Moscow's rising influence.
Schroeder was visiting Russia three months ahead of a
parliamentary election and six months before a poll to elect a
successor to Putin. But he was tight-lipped when questioned
about Putin's plans for the presidential succession.
Schroeder appeared at the book presentation ceremony with
First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, a longtime Putin
ally who also chairs state gas giant Gazprom.
Medvedev, who wrote an introduction to the Russian edition
of Schroeder's book, is seen as one of the possible candidates
to succeed Putin. Putin has not yet said whom he will endorse as
his successor.
Putin has served two consecutive terms and is barred from
standing again next year, though the constitution would allow
him to run a third time in 2012.