Updated 3:24 p.m., ET, Aug. 22, 2000
NUUK, Greenland (Reuters) - Washington`s top arms control expert met Danish and
Greenland officials Tuesday amid U.S. efforts to secure support for a
controversial shield to protect America from missile attacks.
John Holum, the State
Department`s under secretary for arms control and international security,
discussed proposals to upgrade an existing U.S. radar station on the Arctic
island as a part of the new national missile defense (NMD) system.
Russia and China strongly
oppose the plan and Washington`s European allies have been sceptical, fearing
it would undermine international arms agreements and prompt a new arms race.
The Danish national Ritzau
news agency quoted Jonathan Motzfeldt, prime minister of Greenland`s home-rule
government, as saying after the talks that he saw nothing wrong in the U.S.
desire to develop a defensive system.
Asked how he would respond to
a concrete request about making the Thule radar station part of NMD, Motzfeldt
said: "That depends on a series of other issues. We can expect to receive
a direct request from the United States only after a couple of years."
On his arrival in the
Greenland capital Monday after flying directly from arms talks with Russian
officials in Geneva, Holum told reporters that U.S. President Bill Clinton
might make a key decision on the system "within a week or so."
He later backed off, saying:
"I don`t know exactly when the president will make his decision, if it is
going to be days or weeks."
In Washington administration
officials rejected the suggestion that Clinton would announce any decision
shortly.
At the Pentagon, a senior
defense official who asked not to be identified said Defense Secretary William
Cohen was still studying a departmental review on the issue and was unlikely to
send his recommendation to Clinton before early September.
A State Department official,
asked about Holum`s remarks, only noted that Holum was discussing the issue in
Greenland and added: "The president will make his NMD decision later this
year."
Cohen said last month Clinton
would decide by early September whether to keep the missile shield program on a
fast track for deployment in 2005.
But he said the president
would leave it for his successor after the November election to decide whether
and when to begin actual deployment.
Democratic candidate
Vice-President Al Gore favors a cautious approach to NMD, ensuring the
technology is feasible before taking big further steps, while Republican
candidate George W. Bush backs a more ambitious program that would ultimately
protect not just America but its allies.
The ballistic missile
early-warning system (BMWS) radar at the Thule air base in the north-west of
Greenland, a semi-autonomous part of the Kingdom of Denmark, is one of five
installations that must be upgraded to become part of the NMD.
The governments of Denmark
and Britain, which also houses a radar site needed for the NMD, have said that
since they have not received any formal request they do not need to make a
decision now on whether to permit Washington to use their facilities.
Cohen said last month a
decision on whether to upgrade the radar facilities must be made by 2001 to
keep the program on a fast track for deployment by 2005.
Pentagon and other analysts have warned that that timetable is unlikely to be met. The plans were dealt a setback in July with the failure of a test firing over the Pacific and news that development of a booster rocket to launch the interceptors to shoot down incoming missiles was behind schedule.
Washington says countries it
has dubbed "states of concern" such as North Korea, Iraq, Iran and
Libya may be acquiring the capability to fire long-range ballistic missiles
against the United States.