UNITED NATIONS — The Czech Republic and Poland have infuriated Russia by agreeing to allow the United States to install a missile defense system in their countries, which are former Soviet satellites that now belong to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
This week the lead Czech negotiator on the missile shield, Deputy Foreign Minister Tomas Pojar, was in Washington for talks with U.S. officials about the deal, which was signed in July and awaits ratification by his country's Parliament.
On Friday he spoke to Western reporters at the U.N. about Russia's swift military intervention in Georgia last month in defense of pro-Moscow separatists in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. A resurgent Russia, he said, has begun testing the West in the former Soviet Union's sphere of influence.
He warned of new crises ahead, citing Ukraine's strategic Crimean peninsula as a possible site for a flash point.
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How is last month's war in Georgia affecting discussion of the missile shield plan in your country?
For us, the events of Georgia were not such a surprise. They do not have any effects on our . . . placing radar in the Czech Republic. We think it's an important project for the North Atlantic alliance, it's an important project for the Czech Republic, and it's important to have missile defense for the whole North Atlantic area. But it never had any specific relevance to the situation in Georgia.
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Why weren't you surprised by what happened in Georgia?
It was very clear from the activities of the Abkhaz and South Ossetian secessionists in the region, the activities of the Russian military, the Georgian military. The incidents were accelerating for months. We were predicting it was possible that there may be some escalation. We were trying to avoid it and warn everyone to be cautious. But surprising it was not.
And we would not be surprised if in the future there would be similar events in Crimea [which is home to Russia's Black Sea fleet and has an ethnic Russian majority population]. We hope it's not going to happen, but we think the situation there is not very stable. And to provoke more instability would probably not be very difficult.
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Does your country want a missile shield to protect itself against a Russian threat?
