US to Shelve Nuclear-Missile Shield

Bush's successor President Barack Obama, who has tried to "reset" relations with Russia, launched a review of the controversial system after taking office earlier this year. Photo by EPA/BGNES

The United States has suspended Bush-administration plans for a missile defense shield in Poland, the Polish Ministry of Defense said.

Meanwhile Bloomberg agency reported that Obama has told Czech premier Jan Fischer that the U.S. has a "new attitude" toward the proposal. Undersecretary of State for Arms Control Ellen Tauscher will meet Polish and Czech officials today, Czech government spokesman Roman Prorok said by telephone.

Former US president George W. Bush's administration devised the plan to deploy defense missile shield bases in Poland and the Czech Republic, saying that it was a precautionary measure against attacks from the so called 'rogue states' like Iran and North Korea.

During his visit to Bulgaria in June 2007 George Bush held talks with the country's government, a staunch US ally, which was concerned it may be left out of the plan.

The issue has contributed to raised tensions between the US and Russia, which responded furiously to what it saw as an encroachment in the former Soviet bloc and threatened to deploy its own missile system in Kaliningrad, an exclave near Poland.

Bush's successor President Barack Obama, who has tried to "reset" relations with Russia, launched a review of the controversial system after taking office earlier this year.

 

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