Nato inviting Russia to join missile shield effort

WASHINGTON - The United States and its Nato allies are close to an agreement to erect a missile shield over Europe, a project that would give the military alliance a fresh purpose while testing President Barack Obama's campaign to improve relations with Russia.

The deal is likely to be sealed at a two-day Nato summit starting this weekend in Lisbon, Portugal, officials say, as part of what the alliance calls its new "strategic concept", the first overhaul of its basic mission since 1999.

The summit will include Obama and leaders of the 27 other member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will join a separate Nato-Russia session.

Under the arrangement, a limited system of US anti-missile interceptors and radars already planned for Europe would be linked to expanded European-owned missile defences. That would create a broad system that would protect every Nato country against medium-range missile attack.

Nato plans to invite Russia to join the missile shield effort, although Moscow would not be given joint control. The gesture would mark a historic milestone for the alliance, created after World War II to defend Western Europe against the threat of an invasion by Soviet forces.

The Bush Administration first proposed stationing 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and an advanced radar in the Czech Republic, saying the system was aimed at blunting future missile threats from Iran.

Russia was furious, saying the missiles threatened the deterrent value of its nuclear arsenal. At one point Moscow warned that if the plan went forward, it would station missiles close to Poland.

The Obama Administration cancelled the original plan in September 2009, proposing instead a reconfigured missile shield that would begin with ship-based interceptors and radars, followed by more advanced land-based interceptors to be deployed in Romania by 2015 and Poland by 2018. This is to be the core US contribution to Nato's European missile defence system.

The US has asked Turkey, also a member of Nato, to host some of the radar defences and to approve the proposal for a Europe-wide defence network. Turkey has hesitated, saying it does not want the system explicitly to target its neighbour, Iran.

US officials close to pre-summit talks were optimistic that the proposed European missile shield's remaining obstacles could be overcome. They said Russia seems to be seriously considering Nato's plan, while Turkey's concerns could be finessed.

Nato leaders also are expected to adopt a broad strategy for shifting responsibility for Afghanistan's security from the Nato forces there to the Afghans, beginning in the first half of next year and finishing in 2014.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai is expected to attend one Nato session on the war.

But the exit strategy is being overshadowed by strident criticism from Karzai of how the US-led coalition is conducting the war. Karzai said that the presence of a vast number of foreign troops in his country was alienating the population and buttressing the Taleban.

Karzai's attack has led to bitter resentment among Western officials while, at the same time, attracted attention to the intrinsic contradictions in Nato's Afghan strategy. The Afghan leader is accused of undermining the very forces which are keeping his Government - viewed as mired in corruption by the international community - in power at a time when the soldiers have suffered their highest losses of the war in a month.

General David Petraeus, the US commander of Nato forces whose strategy is the target of Karzai's accusations, is "astonished and disappointed" and is said to be even feeling that the situation may make his position untenable. His resignation would be seen as a crippling blow to the mission.

- Independent, AP