BERLIN, March 21 (UPI) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she fears Europe has been weakened by the controversy over the U.S. anti-missile system.
In an interview with the Rheinische Post newspaper days before a crucial European Union summit, Merkel warned of a "division of Europe," days before her government will hold a festive EU summit in Berlin aimed at reviving the body's constitutional dreams.
"Europe weakens itself in its strength and assertiveness if it is disagreeing," she said.
Several countries in Europe oppose the U.S. anti-missile system, which foresees 10 bunker-protected rockets to be stationed in Poland and a radar unit in the Czech Republic by 2011-12.
Other nations have said the system would enhance Europe's security.
Washington claims the rockets are to protect the United States and its European allies against long-range rockets armed with nuclear warheads fired by the likes of North Korea and Iran.
Last week U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Henry Obering, who oversees the American rocket defense system, held talks in Berlin with officials in the German Defense Ministry and German Parliament to alleviate fears that the system could strain Russia's relations with the West. Obering promised the Germans that the system was "purely defensive."
Yet Russia sees the missiles as threats against its territory. Russian President Vladimir Putin said last month at a security conference the U.S. plans would provoke a new arms race.
The missiles have driven a wedge between Germany's grand coalition government: While Merkel's conservatives support the system and would like to include it in a NATO framework, the center-left Social Democrats have been critical over U.S. advances into Eastern Europe, arguing the rockets would provoke political instability.
