Rocket shield weakens the EU

The military expert Klemen Grošelj comments in the daily Večer on the consequences of the US missile defence shield in the Czech Republic for relations between Russia and the EU: "Anyone who expects that the USA in the future ... will not have a stronger presence in this part of Europe is extremely naive. ... The USA will not only strengthen and expand its missile defence shield in eastern Europe but also supplement it with a network of military and secret service bases. For precisely this reason the silence of the Europeans on this issue is all the more worrying, for the strengthening of American influence will inevitably lead to a weakening of the international influence of the EU. ... Europe's silence on the missile defence shield proves how far away the EU is from a security and defence policy of its own. By contrast Russia is all the louder, for Russia perceives the missile defence shield as a threat to the strategic balance with the USA that forms the basis for all the disarmament agreements between the two countries. ... The fact is, Europe does not need a missile defence shield. ... Europe's bloody history has shown that multilateralism, however difficult, time-consuming and ineffective it may be, is a better solution than conflict between states."

» full article (external link, Slovenian)
More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Security Policy / Crises / War, » Russia, » Europe, » U.S.