The Czech Republic and US have completed negotiations on a second anti-missile defence agreement, aimed at helping Czech companies cooperate in military research and development projects, a Czech minister announced on Wednesday.
"Negotiations on that agreement and the text of the agreement were completed today," deputy foreign minister Tomas Pojar said in an interview on Czech commercial radio, Impuls.
The final text of the framework agreement still needs to be carefully examined by both sides, the minister said adding that this could take several weeks or a matter of months for the US.
"We can expect this agreement to be signed in the autumn," Pojar added.
The announcement comes a day after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Czech foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg signed the main agreement for the US base to be sited in the former Soviet bloc country, sparking hostility from Russia which says the project threatens its security.
Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek has set great store by the advantages that could stem for local firms and universities of helping ground-breaking US defence research.
He previously described the demand for Czech firms and institutions to be offered this opportunity as the country's sole condition for hosting the controversial US anti-missile tracking radar.
A third bilateral anti-missile agreement, on the terms and conditions for US personnel at the base, is still stalled. "We are awaiting for a US counter proposal," Pojar, the main foreign ministry negotiator over the radar base, said during the radio interview.
The raft of radar agreements must be approved in the Czech parliament, where Topolanek's fragile centre-right coalition looks uncertain of winning the required number of votes.
