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Former Australian Leader Criticizes US NMD Plan
Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser launched a scathing attack on the United States on Sunday, describing Washington's plans for a national missile defense (NMD) system and its decision to ditch the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on global warming as serious threats to world stability, a leading Japanese newspaper reported Monday.
Washington's decision to proceed with the NMD ignored widespread concerns over the system's viability and its implications for global security, Fraser said in a speech on the opening day of the InterAction Council, an annual gathering of former government leaders from around the world, in Awajishima, Hyogo Prefecture, southwestern Japan, the Yomiuri Shimbun said.
Fraser, who governed Australia from 1975 to 1983, said not only China and Russia see problems with the U.S. missile defense, many allies of the U.S. also see problems.
"The technology may be 10 to 20 years away; it may never work. If it does work, it will probably be countered by alternate technology at some point," he said.
The former Australian also said the United States' emergence as the sole superpower in the post-Cold War world had been unhealthy for inclusive, multilateral decision-making, urging the U.S. to act "with prudence and with consultation."
The conflict in the Balkans was proof of Washington's readiness to ignore established international decision-making bodies, particularly the U.N. Security Council, Fraser said.
He said the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), under the U.S. leadership, "made no attempt to forge a solution that might have achieved the support of the Security Council."
"The Security Council was never given an opportunity to accept the proposals accepted by NATO at the end of the war. This development partly explains the continuing problems in the Balkans," Fraser added.
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