Polish officials said yesterday that they hoped to see the Obama administration commit to deploying missile interceptors in the European nation, Reuters reported (see GSN, March 20).
The Tusk government in Warsaw signed a deal last year with the Bush administration, which planned for the interceptors to be a key component of a European missile shield that would also include a radar base in the Czech Republic. U.S. President Barack Obama has not said whether he intends to pursue the project, but he has made it clear he wants to improve relations with Russia, which has vehemently opposed the effort.
Warsaw took "something of a political risk" by signing the deal, under which it would receive a U.S.-operated Patriot air defense battery and other military support, said Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski.
"When we started discussing this with the United States, the U.S. assured us they would persuade the Russians that it was purely defensive and it would be a noncontroversial decision," he said in Brussels. "We signed with the old administration; we patiently wait for the new administration, and we hope we don't regret our trust in the United States."
U.S. Representative Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.), also speaking at the Brussels Forum conference, said the system must be shown to function correctly before it can be deployed.
Short and medium-range missiles now pose the greatest threat to southern Europe and troops in the region, Tauscher said. NATO must look to counter that threat, possibly in collaboration with Russia, she added.
"We could certainly bolt on the long-range system once it has been tested and create a suite of systems that have complete coverage for everybody," said Tauscher, who has accepted the nomination to become undersecretary of state for arms control and international security (David Brunnstrom, Reuters/Washington Post, March 22).