US, Poland to meet again on missile shield in August: official
WARSAW (AFP) — The United States and Poland will hold their next round of talks on US plans to install a controversial missile shield on Polish soil at the end of August in Washington, a senior Polish official said Wednesday in Warsaw.
"A decision certainly won't be taken before end of talks," Poland's Foreign Affairs Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said.
"Our next meeting is scheduled at the end of August in Washington," Polish Defence Ministry official Stanislaw Komorowski confirmed following Wednesday talks with US negotiators focused on determining the level of US support for the modernization of Poland's military.
A member of NATO since 1999, ex-communist Poland wants extra security guarantees and help in modernising its armed forces in exchange for agreeing to host the controversial US missile shield, endorsed by NATO but vehemently opposed by its communist-era master Russia.
"Our positions are coming closer," Sikorski said, adding the United States was "considering" Poland's demands for extra security guarantees -- possibly in the form of a permanent battery of Patriot-type air defence missiles -- in exchange for hosting the planned missile shield.
US Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Stephen Mull termed Wednesday's talks "our most productive session yet."
"We completed work on broad agreement on the requests on the needs that Poland has in modernising its military," he said.
"Now comes the hard work on specific working to develop the financing package necessary to go forward with it."
"We look forward to welcoming our Polish friends to Washington at the end of August," Mull added.
The United States wants to base 10 interceptor missiles in Poland plus a radar facility in the neighbouring Czech Republic by 2011-2013 to ward off potential attacks by so-called "rogue" states, notably Iran.
The shield would complete a broader US system already in place in the United States, Greenland and Britain.
