“The North Koreans tend to come up with provocative words and statements. They have made statements that are like blackmail?there is a need to accelerate research into missile defenses.” – Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, May 30, 2003

Members, Supporters and Friends:

Missile Defense is not just an issue of national security for America but also a public safety issue for the entire world. It will keep millions of innocent people protected from weapons of mass destruction. This is an issue that America has embraced and is rapidly making progress with the development and deployment of a layered missile defense system in 2004. Missile defense is now an issue that has global ramifications and is being advocated internationally. Other notable countries that are working with the US efforts in developing missile defense include Russia, Denmark, Australia, Israel, India, Japan and England. This list will continue to expand due to the nature of the threat to the public safety of the citizens of the world. Presently Russia and Israel are the only countries that have a deployed missile defense system to protect their citizens.

Japan is one of the main advocates of missile defense and it has good reason to be. North Korea terrified the world, especially the Japanese, when it fired a ballistic missile over Japan in 1998. Since then, North Korea has blatantly flaunted its nuclear arms program to countries around the world, especially those in that region.

Canada will also begin talks with United States officials about the two countries working jointly on a missile defense system for North America. The Canadians understand that this is an issue of public safety and it is in their best interest to work with the United States in preserving ours way of life as well as theirs.\r\n\r\nMDAA would like to thank all of these countries that support missile defense and their leaders for having the vision of what needs to be done in order to keep the world safe from weapons of mass destruction in the 21st Century.