Questions about how the treaty would affect plans for a missile-defense system in Europe – which the US and NATO have favored and which Russia has resisted – are intensifying as senators debate the treaty. Ratification of New START would not guarantee the deployment of a missile-defense system in Europe, but neither would it rule it out.
Still, missile defense looms large enough to prompt Mr. Obama to address a letter to the Senate Dec. 19, assuring members that New START "places no limitations on the development or deployment of our missile defense programs." He also took care to assure senators that he is not bowing to Russian pressures to demonstrate that missile defense in Europe is indeed aimed at deterring countries such as Iran, and not at Russia.
Obama said in the letter that he "will take every action available to me to support the deployment of all four phases" of a missile defense system in Europe. The reference to “phase four” refers to the part of the current missile defense program that addresses US-bound missiles – the part that Russia could interpret to be aimed at countering its arsenal.
Russia also signed on to a dialogue on missile defense – with an eye to future cooperation – at NATO’s summit in Lisbon, Portugal, earlier this month.
