The U.S. wants to modernize a radar system currently deployed on the Marshall Islands in the west Pacific and relocate it to the Czech Republic at a cost of $125 million, including testing and start-up costs. The move is part of American missile shield plans purportedly aimed at protecting NATO countries from "rogue" states such as Iran.
A bilateral Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between Washington and Prague is expected to lay out the details of the deployment of the radar at the Brdy military field, 90 km (55 miles) away from Prague, and the legal status of the 120 U.S. soldiers to be stationed on Czech soil.
The Czech delegation will be led by Ivan Dvorak and the U.S. delegation by Jackson McDonald. The talks are due to end on Thursday.
The deployment of the radar in the Czech Republic will cost U.S. taxpayers $260 million, CTK said, citing the U.S. Missile Defense Agency.
Moscow, already unnerved by NATO expansion to former Warsaw Pact member states, has responded angrily to the plans, saying the European missile shield would destroy the strategic balance of forces and threaten Russia's national interests.
Schroeder's remarks
The former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder criticized U.S. attempts to limit Russia's political and military influence in a speech at Columbia University in New York on Monday.
After being voted out of office in Germany in 2005, Schroeder took a senior position in a company closely linked to the state-owned Russian energy giant Gazprom. The company is currently involved in a project to build the Nord Stream gas pipeline between the two countries along the Baltic seabed. Schroeder's new position drew substantial criticism at home.
The former chancellor called for more negotiations between Russia and the U.S. on the missile shield dispute, and said Moscow's complaints must be taken into consideration.
Schroeder said Europe was concerned about the possibility of a new arms race after the U.S. deploys its missile defense elements in the Czech Republic and Poland. He said it was hard to convince the majority of Germans that the missile defense system was really meant to avert a possible attack from Iran or North Korea, adding that it resembled more a bid by the U.S. to flex its muscles on Russia's borders.
