US congressmen probe ČR's refusal to host SEWS terminals

Prague, June 30 (CTK) - A delegation of U.S. Congresspeople who met Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg yesterday enquired into why Prague had declined the offer to install early warning system (SEWS) terminals, part of the U.S. missile defence system, in the Czech Republic, according to CTK's unofficial information.

However, asked by CTK, Schwarzenberg said he and the U.S. delegation, headed by Republican Congressman Kevin McCarthy, discussed military cooperation only in general.

Most recently, bilateral cooperation has focused on the training of helicopter pilots in the Czech Republic, which the USA has shown interest in.

The Czech military is preparing to start training foreign pilots, Afghan for example, on Czech territory.

Prague still wants to join the possible missile defence system, which might be built under the supervision of NATO.

Prague, however, has indicates that it seeks a more ambitious project to join.

A few weeks ago, Prague and Washington agreed that the Czech Republic will not host the planned early warning centre that would assess the U.S. missile shield's data.

Czech Defence Minister Alexandr Vondra dismissed speculations that Russian pressure was behind the Czech decision. He says the proposed system has been surpassed already.

"We haven't refused the early warning system terminal to spurn the United States or because the project would be too big. The opposite is true. We want our involvement to be far bigger and we want to confirm our alliance with the USA in concrete projects. As we are not sure that this project could develop promisingly, it would be imprudent to invest in it and create excessive expectations, which would finally result in unnecessary frustration in bilateral relations," Vondra recently wrote in Czech daily Lidove noviny.

Originally, the George W. Bush administration planned to install elements of the U.S. missile defence shield in the Czech Republic and Poland, but the Barack Obama administration scrapped the plan in 2009.

Prague later nodded to the U.S. offer to host the early warning system terminals, but it eventually withdrew its participation.