Diplomatic sources say other dates of the signature are still being discussed.
They say Rice could arrive in Prague within her European tour on July 8 or July 9. A final decision is expected next week. Besides the already completed main treaty on the radar, which is to be part of the U.S. missile defence shield and is to be installed in the Brdy military district some 90 km southwest of Prague, the Czech Republic and the USA still continue negotiating the complementary SOFA treaty that deals with U.S. soldiers' status on Czech territory. The only unsettled point in the SOFA negotiations remain the taxes. The issue has been discussed by the two countries' financial experts. With Thailand calls for a rice cartel ...
Czech minister for boycott of Olympic opening ceremony ...
Czech, USA launch another round of talks on SOFA radar treaty ...
Vietnam next to cut rice exports ... the SOFA negotiations still underway, it is not clear whether Rice will sign both treaties or only the main treaty in Prague. Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg said on Wednesday that if the Czech Parliament failed to ratify the radar treaty, he would offer his resignation. "If I don't succeed, I have to at least give a chance for the prime minister to find a better one," Schwarzenberg told the Reuters agency. The USA wants to install the radar on Czech soil and a base with interceptor missiles in Poland. The Czech leftist opposition and two-thirds of the population are against the radar on which the centre-right government has negotiated with the USA since the spring 2007. For the moment it is not clear whether the government will win enough votes in parliament to push the radar treaties' ratification through.
(Ceske Noviny)
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