The European leadership has stopped questioning whether the United States will build a national missile defense (NMD) and is starting to discuss how one will be built with allied participation, George Robertson, secretary general of NATO and former British minister of defence, said yesterday.

This shift in thinking, however, "is not a resounding endorsement for building NMD," he said at a seminar on Capitol Hill sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute and Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.). But, the fact that the Bush administration is moving to make missile defense more inclusive to its allies addresses Europeans' concerns, he added.

"I am very confident that, instead of seeing a trans-Atlantic row over missile defense, we will see serious consultation on how a broader missile defense system will come into effect," Robertson said.

And, Robertson agreed that it makes sense to take a fresh look at the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty and any other arms control issues that would impede missile defense.

Visiting with government officials in Moscow two weeks ago, Robertson said he viewed the Russian proposal for missile defense, but added the "details at the moment are still pretty sketchy."

Part of the Russian tactic on missile defense, may be to drive a wedge between the United States and NATO countries, he noted.

Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), chair of the Senate Government Affairs subcommittee on security and proliferation, reported last month that the tide seemed to be changing on European leaders' resistance to missile defense (Defense Daily, Feb. 16). Cochran noted that Robertson recently said the Europeans now have to accept that the Americans really intend to go ahead with NMD and discussion is needed inside NATO on the specifics.

Thompson, who has been hosting a series of talks on missile defense recently, said NATO has been the most successful alliance of its time, but the United States and Europe each have to understand that global security and threats are changing. A broader view of security must come into play as the European Union considers NMD, and also as the United States reviews the European proposal for a new European rapid response force, Thompson said. Both of those issues have been received with "a lukewarm response on their respective sides of the Atlantic," he added.

Robertson stressed the proposed new European security force outside of NATO would allow Europeans to take a more active role in their defense, which the United States has been promoting for years.

The new European security force "can never take the place of NATO and doesn't want to," he said.