Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski argues compellingly in last week’s Wall Street Journal for the deepening of EU cooperation with six Eastern and South Caucasus States — Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. The Eastern Partnership, conceived by Poland and formally constituted under the Czech Presidency of the EU this year, aims to develop political and trade links with these strategically important states which lie between Europe and Russia. Free trade and visa liberalization stand on the far horizon as incentives for the democratization of normalization of relations between …
On Sunday Poland stated that they hoped the current U.S. administration would not abandon plans for a missile defense system on its territory. Poland’s concern came amid speculation that the current Administration may abandon the previously agreed system in favor of a new direction with Russia. Poland’s Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said that Poland took “something of a political risk” in signing the missile defense agreement with the previous Administration and is hoping that his country won’t regret putting their trust in the United States. Poland has reason to be …
According to an Associated Press report “The Czech government on Tuesday postponed a parliamentary vote on a deal to place an American missile defense installation on Czech soil. Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said the government withdrew the item because it did not have enough votes to pass. ‘It does not mean that we would give up the ratification process,’ Mr. Topolanek said.” Critics of the planned ground-based missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic that would be used to counter long-range missile threats from Iran against Europe or …
We wish we were more surprised by the news this morning that the Obama Administration sent a secret letter to the Kremlin offering to turn tail on U.S. missile defense commitments to Eastern Europe in exchange for Russian help stopping Iran from developing long-range weapons. But former assistant secretary of state and Heritage vice president Kim Holmes saw this coming: A Turkish general once said: “The problem with having the Americans as your allies is you never know when they´ll turn around and stab themselves in the back.” On the …
Despite Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Europe last week, and Secretary of State Clinton’s meeting with the Czech Foreign Minister, Karel Schwarzenberg, this week, we still don’t know whether this Administration will honor U.S. agreements with Poland and the Czech Republic to deploy elements of a U.S. missile defense shield in Europe (known as the ‘third site’ deployment). Obama has successfully–and probably deliberately–provided enough ambiguity to make a decision either way. On the one hand, he has pledged to field defenses against WMD attacks but on the other he …
MOSCOW — The Russian elite are clearly unenthusiastic about Barack Obama’s election to the presidency. Moscow believes Obama has adopted a stance similar to the incumbent administration’s on most of the thorny issues that are dividing the United States and Russia — missile defenses in Eastern Europe, NATO enlargement, Russia-Georgia conflict and Iran’s nuclear weapons program — and that, so far, he has no intention of making concessions to the Kremlin. Thus, the Moscow establishment is convinced it is too early to expect any progress in the U.S.-Russian relationship. In …
President-elect Barack Obama is sending mixed signals on America’s planned missile defense sites in Europe following Russia’s heated rhetoric last week. An Obama adviser said this weekend America’s next commander in chief hadn’t decided if he would continue work on the U.S. missile shield. Although Obama is still months away from taking office, now is not the time to reverse course. This is nothing new from Obama. Throughout the presidential campaign, he shifted his views on missile defense. For instance, a video he recorded for the Priorities Action Fund flatly …
Nobel Prize winner Friedrich Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom is a telling portrayal of what collectivism in the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany can lead to: impoverishment and oppression of freedom. Having lived through the communism regime himself, Czech Republic President Václav Klaus recently published his own book that illustrates a green road to serfdom. It’s titled Blue Planet in Green Shackles, What is Endangered: Climate or Freedom? Klaus refers to himself as an economist who happens to be in a high political position, and he does a remarkable job …
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s decision to finalize an agreement with Prague in early July to station part of the “third site” anti-missile system there arrives at a critical point in the proliferation debate. The news comes at the same time a former U.N. arms inspector is set to report that plans to build a nuclear weapon — compatible with Iran’s ballistic missile technology — could have fallen into the hand of the rogue regime and other dangerous actors. The radar in the Czech Republic, together with the possible stationing …
NOTE: Remarks by Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez added to the end of this post. Today marks the one-year anniversary of the Victims of Communism Memorial, located a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. A ceremony this morning, presided over by Heritage’s Lee Edwards, commemorated the more than 100 million victims of communism. During his remarks, Edwards outlined a new goal: creating an online Global Museum on Communism, which will launch in 2009. Next year will mark the 20th anniversary of communism’s collapse. Here is Edwards’ prepared text: …
