US Promises to Give Missile Defense Agency Guarantees Do Not Impress the Experts

Special envoy for Missile Defense and Strategic Stability of the U.S., Ellen Tauscher, said Thursday that the U.S. will give guarantees that Missile Defense Agency elements will not be used against Russia. However, this will happen after reaching an agreement about a partnership in the realm of strategic stability.

“We provide guarantees after we start cooperating,” Tauscher said about the terms. She again confirmed that the Missile Defense Agency systems being created in Europe are not directed against Russia.

However, Russian military experts agree that it is still early to celebrate victory. “It was an orderly meeting. We will have to wait for the NATO summit and November presidential elections in the U.S. However, it is entirely possible that Russia and the U.S. have a chance to jointly determine common threats,” observed Anatoly Tsyganok, head of the Center for Military Forecasting.

The former chief of staff of Strategic Rocket Forces, retired Colonel General Victor Esin, said in an interview with Izvestia that U.S. promises to give a judicial guarantee of not directing the European Missile Defense Agency against Russia are still far from realization.

“Everything will be determined after the November elections this year – if Barack Obama remains president, the chances of an agreement rise. Or if the authority changes to the Republicans and Romney, then from what I can see, the negotiations with the U.S. will reach an impasse,” said Esin. He recalled that it was the Republicans who insisted that the new agreement concerning the reduction of nuclear forces would not be a prohibition against the development of anti-missile systems. Besides that, he recalled that the U.S. presidential administration has its hands tied to a large extent because of the American congress, which can prevent the U.S. administration from giving Russia the judicial guarantees.

The first vice president at the Academy of Geopolitical Problems, Konstantin Sivkov, said in his turn that judicial and political guarantees are not worth anything and are only a smokescreen for the U.S. “We need warranties that the antennas will not turn our way, the elements will not be deployed to strike us and the command center locations will be possible to intercept and supervise. Besides, leaders and guarantees come and go, but the potential for war remains. We also had a non-aggression agreement with Germany in 1941,” Sivkov said.

He added that the Americans’ actions demonstrate that they could not care less about the negotiations.

“Remember Livia, Iraq, in 2003, there was a Missile Defense Agency non-deployment agreement between the USSR and the U.S., which Bush Jr. unilaterally cancelled. Currently, the U.S. is prepared to give any guarantees as long as no one bothers the construction of the Missile Defense Agency, which is in reality aimed against Russia,” Sivkov said.

There was an international conference about the Missile Defense Agency on Thursday, where the representatives of the Russian Federation Ministry of Defense stated that the European Missile Defense Agency is threatening the nuclear potential of Russia.