New Europe Longs For Bush as Obama Turns Focus to Eu, Russia

March 2nd, 2009|Editor
Military

Leaders in the Czech Republic, Poland and other former communist nations face a backlash at home over their support of Bush-era initiatives, including the proposed U.S. missile- defense system and troop participation in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, concern is growing in eastern Europe that it will be put on “the back burner” as the Obama administration talks about working with Russia and western Europe on issues such as Iran, says Annette Heuser, executive director of the Bertelsmann Foundation, a policy group in Washington.

Obama, 47, will have a chance to personally assuage concerns next month. After ignoring pleas from the east on his trip to Berlin, Paris and London as candidate last year, he will make his first visit there as president on April 5, Czech Premier Mirek Topolanek said yesterday. The president will travel to Prague to meet with European Union leaders, Topolanek said; the Czech Republic currently holds the EUs rotating presidency.

While its too early to say what the presidents overall foreign policy will be, “we can see that Obama wants better relations with Russia and that hes skeptical about missile defense,” says Jaroslaw Walesa, a lawmaker in Polands ruling Citizens Platform party and the son of the countrys first post-communist president, Lech Walesa.

Eastern Europes Angst

Eastern Europes angst over U.S. priorities stands in stark contrast to just a few years ago, when Bushs Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld lauded the former communist states of what he called “New Europe” for their willingness to commit troops to the U.S.-led war in Iraq in 2003, while “Old Europe” nations including Germany and France refused.

Concern is particularly acute now because of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putins recent muscle-flexing, including last years war in Georgia and this years natural-gas dispute with Ukraine.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski on Feb. 25 in Washington, where they confirmed an agreement that the U.S. would put Patriot missiles in Poland even if the missile-defense system — the U.S. portion of which would cost $37.3 billion — isnt built.

Clintons Trip

Clinton, 61, this week makes her first trip to Europe. In Geneva, she sees Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who probably will express concern that the anti-missile system and the Patriot installation threaten his countrys security. She will also attend a meeting of North Atlantic Treaty Organization foreign ministers, including those from nine former Soviet satellites.

Any feelings of neglect will add to the economic pain the region is undergoing. Eastern Europe will slide into a recession this year as export demand collapses, with its economies shrinking 0.4 percent, the International Monetary Fund said in January.

Meanwhile, Russia is exerting its own economic influence. It promised to lend Belarus $2 billion in November to bolster its economy and has already paid out the first half, Deputy Finance Minister Dmitry Pankin said on Jan. 24.

Aid and Afghanistan

President Dmitry Medvedev said on Feb. 3 that Russia would lend Kyrgyzstan $2 billion and provide $150 million more in economic aid. The same day, Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev told the U.S. to remove its military aircraft and personnel from a base used to stage military strikes in Afghanistan, citing a failure to renegotiate the amount paid for the facility.

Economic and security issues remain deeply intertwined throughout the region. Two decades after they began throwing off the yoke of the Soviet Union, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria are all in the EU and NATO. So are the former Soviet republics of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia and the former Yugoslav republic of Slovenia.

The anti-missile system remains a flashpoint. The Ground- based Midcourse Defense system would be a network of interceptor missiles linked by satellites, radar and communications equipment. Chicago-based Boeing Co. is the prime contractor, while Northrop Grumman Corp., Raytheon Co. and Orbital Sciences Corp. are to be the top subcontractors.

Rogue States

The Bush administration said the U.S. defense system would detect and destroy rockets fired from “rogue” states including Iran and North Korea. Under its plan, the radar component would be based in the Czech Republic and the interceptor missile battery in Poland.

Source