Hope Returns to Missile Defense in Washington

From what the head of the Pentagon, Robert Gates, said in the U.S. Senate Committee yesterday, it is clear that he now needs Russians very much. Without the help of Moscow, the U.S. missile defense program will apparently remain just a costly project. That’s what Gates announced almost openly.

The head of Pentagon is now in perhaps the most difficult days of his career. He suffered a stupendous psychological blow. In fact, even six months ago he could safely say in an interview with Russian journalists that his office in the United States has always found enough money for any project.

Now Gates can only dream of such statements. Multibillion-dollar military expenditures continue to have an increasingly detrimental impact on the U.S. treasury. As a result, the Pentagon should not just save, but cut all expensive undertakings to their roots. Among those projects, of course, is creating a third missile defense position in Eastern Europe.

Washington clearly cannot scratch that idea – such a decision would be too serious a blow to America’s image. But the money to build an anti-missile base in Poland and move to Prague under the radar, which is now operated at Kwajalein Atoll, is not provided in the draft budget for 2010. Responding to questions from members of the Senate Committee, Gates, of course, tried to pretend that his department has everything “alright” so far. He even said that sufficient funds had already been set aside for the 2009 fiscal year.

Nevertheless, one thing is obvious: The Pentagon does not have money for the construction of defenses in Eastern Europe, and nobody on Gates’ team apparently knows where to find it. The only real option is to negotiate with Moscow. And then Gates recalled the conversation with Vladimir Putin, which he did not miss the opportunity to relate to members of the Committee. When the conversation took place, Gates did not specify, but said that it was while Putin was still president of Russia. Gates said that the Russians came back and admitted that they had been mistaken in regards to a possible threat from Iran.

In fact it is the Russian leadership that offered to the United States that they not only examine the threat emanating from Iran together, but in case of need, to build a joint missile defense with the use of the Gabala radar station or the new Armavir radars. It was on these sites, as Gates has further remembered, when he informed the Committee that now Washington has all the features for cooperation with Moscow: “For example, to use the radars in Russia and to establish centers there for the exchange of data.”

The Foreign Ministry of Russia will obviously not make transcripts of the interviews and will not remind the oblivious Americans who in fact offered what and when. The important thing is that Robert Gates has stated publicly that the Obama administration is “very interested” in cooperating with Russia on missile defense, which is exactly what Russian diplomats have been striving for the last year and a half.