The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament today welcomed Russia’s decision to suspend plans to deploy short-range Iskander missiles to Kaliningrad, which it had justified as a response to the proposed US ‘Missile Defence’ bases in the Czech Republic and Poland. The news comes ahead of a CND-hosted conference in London this Saturday which will bring together parliamentarians and campaigners from the UK, Czech Republic, Poland and Germany to discuss opposition to the destabilising US plans.
Kate Hudson, Chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, said, “This is a highly significant move by Russia, de-escalating a situation that was set to plunge Europe into a new Cold War. Obama has been sceptical of Missile Defence, saying he would only support it if it proved workable, but now we need to see a strong US response to Russia’s conciliatory step. Obama should announce an immediate cancellation of the US missile deployment to Poland and of the planned radar near Prague.
She continued, “The scrapping of the US missile defence bases is essential for European security and totally vital if progress is to be made on Obama’s other priorities, such as a series of major new agreements with Russia on cutting nuclear warhead stockpiles and reducing their readiness to fire. Russia is reaching out to the new administration with this move. For the sake of all those in Europe who wish to see fewer missiles deployed on our continent, Obama must respond by cancelling the missile defence programme.”
All these issue will be discussed by politicians and activists from across Europe, at CND’s conference “Europe Against US Missile Defence”, to be held at SOAS, University of London, on Saturday 31st January.
Speakers will include:
Michael Connarty MP, Chair of the European Scrutiny Committee (Labour Party)
Jeremy Corbyn MP (Labour Party)
Jean Lambert MEP (Green Party)
Walter Kolbow MP (SPD – Social Democratic Party, Germany)
Jolanta Szymanek-Deresz MP (SLD – Democratic Left Alliance, Poland)
A representative of the CSSD – Social Democrats, Czech Republic
Monika Knoche MP (Die Linke – The Left Party, Germany)
Jana Glivicka (Ne Zakladnam – No to Bases campaign, Czech Republic)
Filip Ilkowski, (Inicjatywz Stop Wojnie – Stop Wars Initiative, Poland) and many other activists from across Europe.
10am-5pm, Saturday 31st January
SOAS, University of London, Thornhaugh Street, London WC1
Interviews will be available with speakers throughout the day, together with a photo call of speakers with a ‘Europe Against US Missile Defence’ sign at 12:30pm. Please call 07968 420859 for full details.