If you want to understand the controversy surrounding the Russian American NATO Agreement, then you will want to continue reading. According to Alan Clendenning of the Associated Press on Saturday November 20, 2010, the debate lies in two main areas: trust and cost. Amid the smiles and handshakes between Presidents Medvedev and Obama in Lisbon, serious issues surrounding the NATO accord still exist.
International Trust
Like an old cold war secret, the lack of trust has roots in the same three 1960s areas. There is suspicion from the old guard in Russia, distrust from congressional members and political groups in the USA and skepticism from former Eastern Bloc nations.
- Russian Mistrust - A Ria Novosti article quoted, Konstantin Kosachyov, head of the State Duma committee for international relations, on February 24, 2010 as dismissing any joint effort in building a missile defense system. “U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, ‘Russia and NATO could work on a joint missile defense system’,” the article said. “Kosachyov made clear the offer would not appease Moscow.” In addition, on November 19, 2010 the AP quoted some Kremlin-connected legislators and political pundits as saying, “Senate failure to ratify the agreement would likely push Moscow to rethink its relationship with the United States.” Mikhail Margelov, head of the foreign affairs committee in the upper house of parliament said, according to the article, “Moscow may reconsider its stance on Iran and Afghanistan if the treaty fails.”
- American Mistrust – The same 11/19/2010 AP report said, Sen. Jon Kyl, a leading Republican, spoke against early treaty ratification and a “… number of his Republican colleagues have said they will follow his lead.” In an attempt to diminish American mistrust, the Obama Administration is pursuing a tactic of fear spearheaded by Vice President Joe Biden. On November 17, 2010, China’s Xinhua net newspaper quoted Biden as saying, "Without ratification of this Treaty, we will have no…cooperation between the two nations that account for 90 percent of the world's nuclear weapons….”
- NATO Mistrust – Some of the strongest fears lie within the ranks of new NATO members. Nations that were once a part of the former Soviet Union’s Warsaw Pact, still have concerns. Reuters reporters Gareth Jones and Gabriela Baczynska argued, “Despite Poland's efforts to mend its own ties with Russia…NATO's eastern enlargement…continues [to have] distrust of Moscow…evident in Sikorski's [Radoslaw Sikorski, Poland’s Foreign Minister] remarks. ‘While we should cooperate with Russia as much as our mutual interests require, NATO remains a military alliance….The safer all members feel, the more open they are for 'resets' and for friendly relations with non-members’."
Missile Defense Cost
NATO estimates the cost of the system at about 200 million Euros over 10 years per country. However, critics argue the price is too big for Europe who is “…suffering from a debt crisis that has led to higher unemployment while forcing governments to raise taxes, cut services and slash civil servant salaries amid austerity drives…., the 11/19 AP report argued.
The US too has cost problems. Senator Kyle’s demand for an additional $4.1 billion is but a smattering of the projected overall cost. Subsequently, NATO has issued the phased adaptive approach, which “creates more opportunities for cooperation and burden sharing among NATO Allies on the development of the Active Layered Theater Ballistic Missile Defense (ALTBMD) system,” Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said as reported on the NATO Watch website.
Mistrust and cost lies beneath the excitement that came out of the Lisbon Summit. Mistrust among members and adversaries along with suspicion over politics and personalities create the lather that bathes a trillion dollar military system during a time of financial uncertainty. Now the world understands that there is truly a long way to go for real missile defense.
Frank W. Hardy - Frank has 36 years of airline experience navigating every ocean & continent. Flying 25,000 hours in 42 years presents a rare historical ...
