Understanding US-Czech relations on missile defence

"The Czechs tell me that the role of the facility, which was going to be based there, was gradually diminishing," said Tomas Valasek, director of foreign policy and defense at the Centre for European Reform. "It was not going to be a central part of the missile defence system at all, which is what the Czechs would have liked. So to say that Vondra rejected ABMS as such is nonsense – if anything, he wanted to be a more integral part of it. I suspect that what happened is that the Americans were keeping the idea of a facility in the Czech Republic going simply because they did not want to offend the Czechs. And it dawned on Vondra that this is what's happening. He probably found it condescending – hence the quip about being offered a 'consolation prize'," said Valasek. "But at the end of the day the Americans had a facility they didn't really need, and the Czechs were being offered something they didn't really want. So they both agreed to part amicably – this was not done in a fit of anger; I'm being told that the two sides talked it over extensively."