Global Security: in Search of a New Vision - Center for Strategic ...

112 NATO Assis tant Sec re tary Gen eral Peter C.W. Flory
Allied ter ri tory and pop u la tions not oth er wise cov ered by the United States sys tem for review at our 2009 Sum mit, to
inform any future polit i cal deci sion.”
Here the lan guage is pretty clear. In fact, the Con fer ence of National Arma ments Direc tors (or
CNAD) had already pre pared, in prep a ra tion for Bucha rest, an ini tial tech ni cal report on archi tec ture
options for a NATO mis sile defence sys tem, build ing on the pro posed U.S. sys tem, to pro vide cov er age
for those areas not pro tected by the U.S. sys tem. The CNAD, which I chair, is work ing now to refine
those options and to com plete addi tional anal y sis that the nations have asked us to under take in prep a ra -
tion for the Strasbourg-Kehl Sum mit. Spe cif i cally, we will look at or con tinue our work on debris issues,
defence against shorter range mis siles, includ ing the poten tial threat of mis siles in the hands of non-state
actors, tech ni cal ques tions relat ing to C2 infor ma tion exchange, and the per for mance of national mis sile
defence systems in providing comprehensive coverage of NATO territory and population centres. This
work will pro vide the capa bil ity options for the polit i cal-mil i tary delib er a tions lead ing up to dis cus sions
and pos si ble deci sions at the Strasbourg-Kehl Sum mit next April.
At Bucha rest, we also addressed the ques tion of Rus sia, and Rus sia’s response to the pro posed U.S.
Euro pean site and the pos si ble link age of NATO and U.S. mis sile defence sys tems.
“We also com mend the work already under way to strengthen NATO-Rus sia mis sile defence coop er a tion. We are com -
mit ted to max i mum trans par ency and recip ro cal con fi dence build ing mea sures to allay any con cerns.”
Our approach to Rus sia is an impor tant part of our over all approach to mis sile defence, and I want to
be clear, NATO wants to work with Rus sia to address Rus sia’s rea son able con cerns. To that end, we have
held a num ber of meet ings of the NATO–Rus sia Coun cil to dis cuss the issue of the U.S. site and ter ri to -
rial mis sile defence for NATO, includ ing detailed brief ings by the U.S. on its mis sile defence sys tem and
the pro posed Euro pean site.
At the same time, Rus sia does not have a veto on Alli ance deci sions. And Rus sia has not, frankly,
helped its cause by threat en ing Alli ance mem bers, or offer ing implau si ble argu ments as to why Europe
should not have the option of being defended against bal lis tic mis silessomething Russian leaders have
them selves enjoyed for more than three decades. For exam ple, it does n’t take an Ein stein, as the Sec re tary
Gen eral has said, to rec og nize that what the U.S. is pro pos ing does not threaten Rus sia’s stra te gic deter -
rent forces.
Mean while, on the prac ti cal level, NATO is work ing with Rus sia to develop interoperability between
NATO and Rus sian thea tre bal lis tic mis sile defence sys tems and oper a tors who might be deployed in
adja cent areas of respon si bil ity in a future cri sis response oper a tion. This work is gen er ally going well.
Most recently, this Jan u ary we had a suc cess ful com puter assisted exer cise in Munich. On the other hand,
Rus sian offi cials have been clear that Rus sia will break off this coop er a tion if NATO joins the U.S. in a
mis sile defence sys tem.
Finally, Alli ance lead ers joined in encour ag ing
“the Rus sian Fed er a tion to take advan tage of United States mis sile defence coop er a tion pro pos als” [and express ing
readi ness] “to explore the poten tial for link ing United States, NATO and Rus sian mis sile defence sys tems at an appro pri -
ate time.”
I think these state ments show how seri ous we are, in NATO, in seek ing to work with Rus sia to address
Rus sia’s rea son able con cerns, and poten tially, to con sider the link age of U.S., NATO and Rus sian mis sile
defence sys tems. It also shows that Allies rec og nize and sup port the efforts the U.S. has made in offer ing
Rus sia options for mis sile defence coop er a tion.