POLAND - USA

Poland 'agrees to host' US shield

Saturday, February 2, 2008

Poland said Friday it has reached a deal in principle with the United States for aid to modernize Polish air defenses in return for Warsaw's hosting a controversial US missile shield. (Story by A. Roy)

WASHINGTON, Feb 1 (Reuters) - The United States supports
modernizing Poland's air defenses, a key Polish demand for
hosting part of a planned missile defense system, U.S.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Friday.


The Bush administration wants to locate 10 interceptor
missiles in Poland and a radar installation in Czech Republic
under a $3.5 billion plan to defend Europe and the United
States against a possible missile attack from Iran and other
"rogue states."


Russia fiercely opposes the plan and has said it will take
unspecified "tangible" measures if construction begins on the
system's infrastructure -- prompting Poland to ask Washington
for more security guarantees if it goes along.


"We understand that there is a desire for defense
modernization in Poland and particularly for air defense
modernization in Poland," Rice told a joint news conference
with Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski.


"This is something that we support because it will make our
ally, Poland, more capable."


Sikorski, on his first trip to Washington as foreign
minister of Poland's new center-right government, said there
were more negotiations to come but he was satisfied that his
country's arguments had been accepted.


"We have an agreement in principle." he said. "There is
still a great deal of work for our experts. ... But yes, I am
satisfied that the principles that we have argued for have been
accepted."


Rice said negotiations with Poland would resume as soon as
possible on details of the missile defense project. She said
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk would visit Washington in
early March and he and President George W. Bush could then "go
forward" on the matter.


Sikorski said Tusk would make final decisions for Poland.


Neither Sikorski nor Rice detailed how the air defenses
could be modernized. Poland's Defense Minister, Bogdan Klich,
has suggested Washington bolster the air defenses with new
short- and medium-range systems like the Patriot missile in
exchange for Warsaw's missile shield cooperation.


Sikorski has said Poland feels no direct threat from Iran
but takes seriously U.S. concerns about the proliferation of
weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile technology.


During his visit, Sikorski has expressed concern about
saber-rattling from Moscow -- Poland's Warsaw Pact overlord for
nearly a half century after World War II -- and whether the
Polish government would be able to sell the missile shield plan
to a skeptical Polish public. To do so, he said, any deal must
make Poland and the United States more secure.


Rice emphasized the United States' commitment to Poland's
security was sealed when Poland joined NATO in 1999. "Of
course, our commitment to Poland's security and to Poland's
defense is unassailable," she declared.


But she also sought to assure Moscow the missile shield was
not a threat to Russia.


She said the world was in "a completely different
environment" than during the Cold War, when the United States
had a Strategic Defense Initiative antimissile program aimed at
the Soviet nuclear threat.


"This is not that program. This is not the son of that
program. This is not the grandson of that program. This is a
very different program that is meant to deal with limited
threats," Rice said.


"There is no way that a few interceptors in Poland and
radars in the Czech Republic can degrade the thousands of
nuclear warheads that the Russians have. And there is no intent
to do so."

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