The Czech government had been a staunch defender of the previous US administration's missile-defense plans Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

The Czech Republic has decided not to participate in the United States’ planned missile defense program out of frustration about its reduced role in the project.

Under President George W. Bush’s missile-defense system plans, 10 ground-based interceptors were due to be placed in Poland and a radar facility sited in the Czech Republic. Outraged at the plan, Russia said it would place its own missiles close to Poland if the scheme came to fruition.

In September 2009 President Obama scrapped the previous administration’s plans before unveiling an updated program with an unspecified role for the Czech Republic. Two months later, it offered the Czech Republic the possibility of hosting a separate early warning system which would help detect missile threats to NATO countries.

The Czech government had invested a lot of political capital in the Bush-era project, which was unpopular with much of the country’s electorate. The Czech Defense Ministry said in a statement that the latest role envisaged for the country had become redundant because NATO had decided in 2010 to introduce an information sharing system for all alliance members.

“In this context we thanked [them] for the previous ... offer and noted that in light of further developments it will not really be needed,” Czech Defense Minister Alexandr Vondra said after meeting US Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn III last week.
Nevertheless, Mr Vondra has not shut the door entirely on cooperation in the missile defense system.

“We will look for other options [as to] how the Czech Republic can join the alliance’s system in the future,” he said.

During his visit to Poland in May, US President Barack Obama reaffirmed that Poland would host SM-3 interceptors from 2018 under the new US system. Russia has been invited to participate in the scheme, but Moscow wants a bigger say in deployment issues.