German minister defends U.S. missile shield plans

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

German minister defends U.S. missile shield plans

Mar 26, 2007 — BERLIN (Reuters) - Conservative German Defense
Minister Franz Josef Jung defended U.S. plans to build a missile
shield in eastern Europe, an idea that has been attacked by
Russia and the conservatives' own coalition partners.

In a German newspaper interview published on Monday, Jung said
the purpose of the U.S. missile shield in the Czech Republic and
Poland was to protect NATO territory and was not aimed at Russia
as Moscow alleges.

Jung, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative camp,
also played down the significance of comments by members of the
center-left Social Democrats (SPD), Merkel's partners in the "grand
coalition" formed in 2005, attacking the shield.

"I acknowledge the various statements, but I represent the
position of the government. I assure you that in the cabinet,
we're united," Jung told Handelsblatt newspaper.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=2980807

[harun]

1. Cool, if they want to pick up the bill for it, that works for me

I wonder if the taxpayers in Germany would be as happy about it as the tax payers in the United States?