MULTINATIONAL MISSILE DEFENSE COOPERATION

The Embassy is concerned that some statements by Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Green have been taken out of context as they have been reported by some organizations and pared down to appear in articles. The entire text of DASD Green's statement can be found here

We invite interested news organizations and others to read the entire transcript. At the bottom of this release you will find the embassy's translation of the two paragraphs that speak to cooperation with various countries on missile defense and related technologies.

DASD Green's comments of April 11 are a reiteration of USG policy on missile defense. Specifically speaking about Ukraine, our policies are:

• There is no cooperative agreement current, pending, or being negotiated between the United States and Ukraine similar to the site agreements being negotiated in Poland and the Czech Republic.
• The United States cooperates on aerospace technology and missile defense with many countries.
• Ukraine is a leader in aerospace technology research and development. We cooperate with Ukraine on missile defense only in the area of industry-to-industry R&D relationships.

Begin partial translation of DASD Green Statement before the Subcommittee on Strategic Forces of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"International cooperation is one of the cornerstones of our national policy on ballistic missile defense. In 2002, the President directed that missile defense cooperation will be a feature of U.S. relations with close, long-standing allies, and an important means to build new relationships with new friends. The U.S. has made progress in carrying out this direction, with cooperative efforts underway with many countries. Today, 15 countries (including nine in NATO alone) are engaged in missile defense efforts of some kind, whether by hosting key facilities or assets on their territory or actively discussing this possibility, pursuing R&D programs, signing cooperative agreements with the U.S., or maintaining capabilities. In addition to the U.S., the list includes Australia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Israel, India, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Taiwan, Ukraine, and the U.K. And I would point out that Russia clearly believes in the value of missile defense as it continues to maintain a missile defense system around its major population center, Moscow, and has developed defenses against shorter-range missiles….

. . .We have concluded agreements with the U.K., Japan, Australia, Israel, Italy, and Denmark to facilitate government-to-government and industry-to-industry missile defense cooperation. We are also holding discussions or working on technology efforts with Germany, India, the Netherlands, Spain, Ukraine, and France."

COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT