[R-G] Poland Signals a Shift on U.S. Missile Shield: "We Feel No Threat from Iran"

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

Poland -- no longer an American Trojan donkey in Europe? -- Yoshie

<http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/01/06/america/shield.php>
International Herald Tribune
Poland signals a shift on U.S. missile shield
By Judy Dempsey
Sunday, January 6, 2008

BERLIN: Signaling a tougher position in negotiations with the United
States on a European anti-ballistic missile shield, Foreign Minister
Radek Sikorski says the new Warsaw government is not prepared to
accept U.S. plans to deploy part of the shield in Poland until all
costs and risks are considered.

"This is an American, not a Polish project," Sikorski said in an
interview published in the weekend edition of the daily Gazeta
Wyborcza.

The previous Polish government had consented in principle to accept
parts of the U.S. shield, but no formal agreement has been signed. Now
Sikorski is saying that the terms under which the shield would be
deployed were unclear and that the new government wanted the risks to
be explained, the financial costs to be set out and clarification on
how Poland's interests would be defended if the shield were deployed
on its territory.

"We feel no threat from Iran," Sikorski said, challenging the U.S view
that some of the biggest threats facing the security of Europe and the
United States are from "rogue states" in the Middle East, including
Iran.

Still, Sikorski said, "if an important ally such as the United States
has a request of such an important nature, we take it very seriously."

He added: "It is not only the benefits but the risks of the system
that have to be discussed fully. It cannot be that we alone carry the
costs."

There was no official response from the United States. Bogdan Klich,
Poland's new defense minister, is expected to make his first official
visit to Washington this month to explain his government's position.

NATO, the U.S.-led military alliance, said Sunday that the missile
defense issue was essentially a bilateral discussion between Poland,
the United States and Russia.

"NATO is happy to be a forum for discussion, and it is a useful one,"
said James Appathurai, a spokesman for the alliance. "But it does not
substitute for the bilateral track."

Sikorski also said he was worried that the United States could abandon
the project after the American presidential election in November. In
that case, Poland would nevertheless have to bear political costs,
like the deterioration of relations with Russia, if it signed on to
the shield prematurely.

The deployment of the U.S. missile shield has become such a
contentious issue between the United States and Russia - and indeed
between Poland and Russia - that President Vladimir Putin of Russia
has warned of a new arms race if Washington proceeds with deployment
in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Having accused Washington of threatening Russia's national security
interests, Putin last month suspended his nation's participation in
the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty.

Under that treaty, one of the last major arms pacts concluded between
the former Cold War foes, countries stretching from Canada across
Europe to the eastern parts of Russia cut their conventional forces
and agreed to on- site inspections and an elaborate system of
verification and notifications. It was implemented in 1992.

The Kremlin did not say how long it would suspend its participation.
But Russian diplomats said it depended on not only what kind of
concessions the United States was prepared to make concerning changes
to the treaty, but also whether Poland and the Czech Republic would
deploy part of the U.S. missile shield.

The new approach on missile defense taken by Poland's new center-right
coalition government, under Prime Minister Donald Tusk, reflects a
different negotiating strategy from the previous
nationalist-conservative government led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

Kaczynski, who was much more pro- American, had in principle agreed to
deploy several interceptors on Polish territory without going into
detail over the costs, the maintenance and the risks to Poland's
security, according to Polish officials.

But the former prime minister did little to allay Russia's fears about
deploying the missile shield in Poland, or to drum up support in other
European Union member states. He left it up to the United States to
explain the issue to the Kremlin and to European governments.

In contrast, Tusk and Sikorski, while having no illusions about
Russia's new self-confidence under Putin, have nevertheless repeatedly
said they want to improve relations with Russia.

Later this month, Poland and Russia for the first time will hold
direct talks in Warsaw over the missile shield. The Russian side will
be led by Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kisliak.

Sikorski, who was defense minister in the Kaczynski government, had
been forced to resign early last year after criticizing, among other
things, the government's handling of the missile defense negotiations.
He later joined Tusk's Civic Platform party and was appointed foreign
minister last month.

Sikorski, then and now, has insisted that Poland will need additional
security protection from the United States, for example in the form of
Patriot missiles, if it accepts the interceptors.

NATO could also be called upon. Alliance diplomats said Poland would
insist on a guarantee from NATO if the missile defense system became
part of the alliance's own anti-ballistic missile system. This means
that if Poland were threatened with attack or came under attack, the
NATO alliance would be obliged to come to its assistance.


--
Yoshie
<http://montages.blogspot.com/>