Poland, US agree missile plans
US pledges to boost Polish air defences after Poland agrees to host controversial American missile defence system.
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Saturday, 02, Feb 2008 05:01
The US government has pledged to boost Polish air defences after Poland agreed in principle to host a controversial American missile defence system.
As part of a $3.5 billion (£1.77 billion) scheme, the Bush administration plans to install ten interceptor missiles in Poland, as well as a radar installation in the Czech Republic, in an effort to protect Europe and the US from an attack from so-called "rogue states" such as Iran and North Korea.
The project has been fiercely opposed by Russia, with president Vladimir Putin comparing its potential to destabilise global security to the brinksmanship of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1961.
Polish foreign minister Radek Sidorsky told reporters in Washington that further negotiations would go ahead but that he was happy that security concerns regarding the missiles' locations had been met.
"We have an agreement in principle." he explained. "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."
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said: "We understand that there is a desire for defence modernisation in Poland and particularly for air defence modernisation in Poland.
"This is something that we support because it will make our ally, Poland, more capable."
She added that the missile scheme was not a threat to Russia, as the world was now in a "completely different environment" to that of the Cold War, and denied claims that the project was akin to the Strategic Defence Initiative antimissile program of that period.
"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," she 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."