Czech Republic Parliament Backs Government, 97-96

Czech Vote On European Missile Defense Site Expected During Next Two Months

The Czech Republic Parliament narrowly permitted the Czech government, which backs plans to install a missile defense system in Europe, to survive a no-confidence vote.

Parliament voted 97-96 for the government. Some 101 votes would have been required to sustain the no-confidence measure.

That vote comes as Czech Minister Mirek Topolanek is slated to meet with President Bush at the White House Wednesday, and as the Czech Republic is poised to assume leadership of the European Union Jan. 1. Bush is a strong proponent of the proposed EMD system.

The Czech government earlier this year signed an agreement to permit the United States to install a radar for the European Missile Defense (EMD) system in the Czech Republic.

Czech members of parliament are expected to vote in the next two months on whether to approve the radar installation.

The win for the government on the no-confidence vote came as the government also managed to push its budget through Parliament by one vote.

Also, in elections, the government ruling party managed to hang on to its position as the largest single voting bloc in the Senate, but those elections weakened its grip on power, so that the Civic Democrats lost their absolute majority in that chamber. They wound up with 35 senate seats, down from 41. Opposition Social Democrats will have 29 seats.

Bush has pressed the Czech Republic and Poland to host the EMD system. Poland would provide the site for EMD interceptors housed in ground silos.

But back in Washington, some Democrats in Congress have been skeptical of EMD, placing restrictions on its funding. The Missile Defense Agency can’t begin actual construction of the EMD system on Czech and Polish territory until approvals are secured overseas.

While NATO has backed the EMD system, and both the Czech and Polish governments have signed on, parliaments in both nations have yet to supply the approvals that American lawmakers demand before the EMD system can move forward.

Meanwhile, time is running out on the Bush administration, which will step down in January, and it remains to be seen how the next occupant of the White House will view EMD. Some observers fear that if Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, the Democratic presidential hopeful, wins the Nov. 4 election, he and a Democratic-led Congress would cut funding for the EMD system.

Topolanek’s meeting with Bush this week may bolster him in asking the Czech Parliament to back the EMD system. The Czech Republic may gain an arms deal with the United States out of agreeing to host EMD.

Another hurdle that Congress has placed before the EMD system is that the interceptors to be used there must pass tests, even though they would be a variant of interceptors already being used in the U.S. Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system, which is installed in Alaska and California.

The main difference is merely that the EMD interceptors would be two-stage rockets, omitting one of the three stages on the GMD system that is led by The Boeing Co. [BA].

But requiring testing could delay deploying the EMD interceptors by about two years.

And a key question is how much time Europe and the United States have before Iran develops nuclear weapons and long-range missiles.

Iran, defying world opinion, has 4,000 centrifuges whirling to produce nuclear materials, which it says would be used for peaceful electrical power generation, but which Western leaders fear may be used to produce nuclear weapons.

Further, Iran has fired multiple missiles in salvo tests; launched a missile from a submerged submarine; and announced plans for a space program that would involve technology similar to that of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

Further, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said Israel should be wiped from the map, and that Israel soon will cease to exist.

While some U.S. estimates state Iran won’t likely have long-range missiles and nuclear weapons until 2013, that would be close to the time when the EMD system would come on line, even if construction began soon. And other estimates, including Israeli intelligence findings, see the threat as much closer, within the next two years.

The Czech Republic and Poland both have been pressured, fiercely, by Russia, which adamantly opposes the EMD system, seeing it as U.S. invasion of turf historically ruled by the former Soviet Union. Russian leaders have threatened to use nuclear weapons to annihilate the EMD system if it is built on Czech and Polish territory. (Please see separate story in this issue.)