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US-Warsaw missile deal raises stakes
Warsaw and Washington on Wednesday signed a deal to deploy a US missile shield in Poland, in the face of deep anger and threats of retaliation from Moscow.
- Agencies
- Published: 23:43 August 20, 2008
- US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, left, and Poland's Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski, right, shake hands after signing an agreement to place a US missile defense base in northern Poland.
- Image Credit: AP
Warsaw: Warsaw and Washington on Wednesday signed a deal to deploy a US missile shield in Poland, in the face of deep anger and threats of retaliation from Moscow.
“This will help us to deal with the new threats of the 21st century, of long-range missile threats from countries like Iran or from North Korea,'' said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice shortly before inking the accord with Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski. The signing came amid heightened tensions between the United States and Nato on the one hand and Moscow on the other over Russia's conflict with pro-Western Georgia.
Rice sought to fend off the criticism saying: “Missile defence of course is aimed at no one. It is in our defence that we do this.'' Later she told reporters: “It is not aimed in any way at Russia.''
However, she dismissed comments by Russian officials who said the defence base exposes Poland to attack. Rice said such comments “border on the bizarre'' and warned that such threats from Russia are “probably not wise''. She also told reporters that the “Russians are losing their credibility'' and that Moscow will pay a price for its actions in Georgia. She did not elaborate.
The United States plans to base 10 interceptor missiles in Poland — plus a radar facility in the neighbouring Czech Republic —between 2011 and 2013. “I consider this [development] positive ... It doesn't surprise me,'' Czech President Mirek Topolanek told journalists in Prague after a cabinet meeting as he welcomed the signing of the agreement in Warsaw.
Both former Soviet Bloc nations have been Nato members since 1999, and the missile shield will complete a system already in place in the United States, Greenland and Britain.
Polish President Lech Kaczynski said the deal was a sign of the crucial “strategic alliance'' of Western nations. “We have to remember that Western ... countries have certain values and principles in common,'' he said.
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