18 November 2002
US says decision time looms for missile defence
By Dominic Evans
Reuters

Undersecretary of State John Bolton said Washington was talking with NATO and individual U.S. allies about its proposed protective umbrella, which it hopes will thwart missile attack from rogue states, and was impatient to get started.

"It is no longer a question of whether missile defense will be implemented," he told a conference on missile defense at London's Royal United Services Institute.

"The question is what, how and when. The train is about to pull out of the station. We invite our friends and allies ... to climb on board," Bolton said.

As an example of a threat he singled out Libya, which he said had "pursued a very successful program to expand its capabilities in the chemical, biological, nuclear and ballistic missile field" since the suspension of U.N. sanctions three years ago.

Critics of the missile defense project, which involves knocking out incoming missiles with interceptor missiles, say it will trigger a renewed arms race and offers no protection against a Sept. 11-style attack.

In a first step toward setting up a missile defense shield, the United States in June unilaterally withdrew from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty which banned such systems.

Washington may also require approval from NATO allies Denmark and Britain to upgrade radar bases on their territory if the plans are to go ahead.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has signaled he will override objections from his own ruling Labor Party and embrace the project, but has declined to commit himself to approving the upgrade of radar facilities at Fylingdales RAF base in northern England until Washington makes a formal request.

Bolton said that time was soon approaching.

"Our desire to develop and protect the technology and get to the deployment as fast as we can means we will be coming to a decision on some of these requests that will be necessary in the very near future," he said.

The U.S. general in charge of missile defense, General Ronald Kadish, will visit the early warning system at Fylingdales Wednesday on what British officials have called a "private familiarization" trip.

Missile defense will be part of discussions at NATO's summit in Prague this week and Bolton said the shape of any defense umbrella, and the siting of its command and control facilities, depended on the support shown by Washington's NATO partners.

"It depends on the political evolution of missile defense," he said. "The political cooperation required to carry that further, particularly in allocation of command and control facilities, is in the hands of NATO allies.

"They are the ones that will have to make the choice."

While the U.S. administration's primary motivation was to protect its own territory, "I don't think there's any hesitation to address as many threats as our budget is capable of handling," he said.