Posted in the BBC website, Aug. 18, 2008
Poland has signed a preliminary deal with the US on plans to
host part of its new missile defence shield.
Under the agreement, the US will install 10 interceptor
missiles at a base on the Baltic coast in return for help
strengthening Polish air defences.
The US says the system will protect itself and Europe against
long range missile attacks by "rogue states".
Moscow has voiced anger at the deal, saying it worsens ties
with the West already strained by the war in Georgia.
At a press conference in Moscow, the deputy chief of general
staff, Gen Anatoly Nogovitsyn, said US plans for a missile
base in Poland "cannot go unpunished".
"It's a cause for regret that at a time when we are already in
a difficult situation, the American side further exacerbates
the situation in relations between the United States and
Russia," he said.
Moscow has argued the project will upset the military balance
in Europe and has warned it will be forced to redirect its
missiles at Poland.
However, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told the
BBC's World Tonight programme that the timing of the deal had
nothing to do with the hostilities.
"We agreed this negotiating phase a week ago, which was...
before the events in Georgia, and because of the US calendar
there was some urgency," he said.
"But, what is crucial, and what decided the success of the
talks over the last couple of days, was that the US offered us
new proposals."
Unlike the US, Poland sees Russia as a bigger threat to its
security than so-called rogue states such as Iran, the BBC's Adam Easton in Warsaw says.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is reported to have
cancelled a scheduled visit to Poland shortly after the deal
was announced.
Modernisation
Mr Tusk said Washington had agreed to meet Warsaw's main
demands in exchange for hosting the 10 interceptor missiles in
a former military base near Poland's Baltic Sea coast.
In return, the US had agreed to help modernise the Polish
armed forces and locate Patriot missiles and a garrison of US
servicemen in Poland to beef up its air defences, Mr Tusk
said.
Poland is reported to have demanded the extra security help as
part of the deal after Moscow threatened to target its
missiles at any eventual bases.
A White House spokeswoman said US President George W Bush "was
very pleased with this development".
"In no way is the president's plan for missile defense aimed
at Russia. In fact, it's just not even logically possible for
it to be aimed at Russia given how Russia could overwhelm it,"
she told AFP.
The US signed an agreement with the Czech Republic in July to
base tracking radars there as part of the missile defence
system.
The US wants the sites to be in operation by about 2012.
