This is certainly happening at an interesting time:
Poland and the United States have signed a preliminary deal to place part of a U.S. ballistic missile defense system in Poland, a plan that has drawn sharp objections from Russia.
“We believe that missile defense is a substantial contribution to NATO’s collective security,” said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino. “So we are pleased with the development.”
The Bush administration has long wanted to put missile interceptors in Poland. The interceptor rockets would be linked to an air-defense radar system in the Czech Republic; officials there agreed in April to take part in the system.
Both countries are former Soviet satellites which now belong to the NATO alliance. The plans to base the anti-missile system in Eastern Europe have raised alarms in Russia, which fears the system would blunt its nuclear deterrent.
The United States has also agreed to help Poland modernize its military, which it requested as a condition of its support for housing the missile defense system.
Russia is not happy:
“The fact that this was signed in a period of very difficult crisis in the relations between Russia and the United States over the situation in Georgia shows that, of course, the missile defense system will be deployed not against Iran but against the strategic potential of Russia,” Dmitry Rogozin said in a telephone interview.
Poland agreed on Thursday to host elements of a U.S. global anti-missile system after Washington agreed to boost Poland’s own air defenses. Washington says the system is aimed to protect the United States and its allies from long range missiles that could in the future be fired by Iran or groups such as al-Qaeda.
Rogozin criticized the United States for failing to support Russia in the crisis over Georgia and said relations with Washington could be harmed.
“I consider that the United States is not acting in a cautious manner in this situation,” Rogozin said when asked about U.S.-Russian relations and the situation in Georgia.
“Instead of getting full moral and political support in the struggle against real aggression and ethnic cleansing, we have heard a mass of unpleasant words and threats. That will of course not strengthen our relations.”
You may remember that in June Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski met with John McCain and Obama to discuss the shield:
Sikorski held talks with US presidential hopeful John McCain, and called them ‘so cordial and precise that it surprised us.’ Sikorski added that presidential candidate Barack Obama’s skepticism about the shield is ‘widely known.’
But McCain’s opinion strengthens the Polish stance in negotiations, Sikorski said, and serves as an important point in talks.
‘It shows the possible future president and one of the main strategists of that country thinks Polish demands are sensible,’ he said.
Can you spot the serious candidate?
