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Poland ready to take part in Obama missile defense
2009-10-21
WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland stands ready to take part in a revamped missile defense system unveiled by Washington last month, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said after meeting U.S. Vice President Joe Biden Wednesday. Poland and the Czech Republic are still smarting from President Barack Obama's decision to scrap Bush-era plans under which they would have hosted elements of an ambitious missile shield to protect against possible long-range attack from Iran. Russia strongly opposed the plans, fearing they would neutralize its own nuclear arsenal. Obama's new scheme envisages the deployment first of sea-based interceptors and then of land-based systems. Under this arrangement, Poland could host SM-3 interceptors targeting short and medium-range missiles. "Poland finds the new anti-missile project very interesting and important and, in the appropriate scale, we are ready to participate," Tusk told a joint news conference. Biden, on the first leg of a European visit, stressed that the new system would be more effective and cover a much greater part of European territory than the previous Bush plan. "I welcome the prime minister's declaration that Poland stands ready to host elements of missile defense," he said. Raising concerns in Poland and other former Soviet satellites, Obama has made "resetting" relations with Russia a major foreign policy objective as he needs Moscow's cooperation on Iran, Afghanistan and other strategic issues. Russia has welcomed his decision to shelve the Bush missile shield plan, which Moscow had regarded as a direct threat to its own security. It is awaiting more details on the new missile defense plans but says they are less worrisome. "COMMITMENT UNWAVERING" Biden sought to reassure Poles that the Obama administration would not strike any deals with Russia affecting their security over their heads. "Our commitment to Poland is unwavering," he said. For NATO ally Poland, rattled by Russia's more assertive foreign and security policy on the territory of the ex-Soviet Union, especially in Georgia, the type of anti-missile system is less important than a clear U.S. commitment to its security. "We do not care so much about the hardware, but about the perception that the security status of this region is equal to that of western Europe," Witold Waszczykowski, deputy head of Poland's National Security Bureau, told Reuters. After talks with Polish President Lech Kaczynski, a conservative known for his anti-Russian rhetoric, Biden emphasized the importance of article 5 of NATO's charter which states that an attack on one member is an attack on all. Biden added that he and Kaczynski had discussed Russia "in depth" and had agreed on the need for better ties with Moscow. Poland, which joined NATO a decade ago, has long complained that it hosts no U.S. troops or major military installations despite contributing troops to U.S.-led missions in Iraq and Afghanistan -- contributions which drew warm praise from Biden. Neither Biden nor Tusk made any reference to plans to deploy a Patriot missile battery in Poland and diplomats said tax issues were still blocking an agreement. Under a deal negotiated with the Bush administration in parallel with the missile shield plan, Poland secured a commitment that the United States would send an armed Patriot battery to Poland from Germany several times each year until 2012 to help upgrade Polish air defenses. "This is a subject that must be resolved as soon as possible," President Kaczynski, a critic of the Tusk government, told reporters after his meeting with Biden. Earlier, Biden laid a wreath at the monument to victims of the Warsaw ghetto uprising, murdered by the Nazis during World War Two. He also met leaders of Warsaw's Jewish community. (Editing by Mark Trevelyan and Elizabeth Fullerton)
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