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US and Poland rush to secure missile defence shield

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US and Poland rush to secure missile defence shield

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US and Poland rush to secure missile defence shield

America and Poland are rushing to secure a deal to build a controversial missile defence shield in Eastern Europe in response to Russia's invasion of Georgia.

By Harry de Quetteville in Berlin
Last Updated: 7:12PM BST 14 Aug 2008

The Warsaw government said that talks with Washington to locate a missile silo in Poland to accompany a radar site in the Czech Republic were almost "at the finishing line".

US negotiations with Warsaw over the project, which would see a silo of 10 interceptor missiles housed in the north of the country, have been dragging on for more than a year.

But in the wake of Russia's advance into Georgia, both America and the centre-Right government of the Polish prime minister Donald Tusk appear determined to cement their alliance and complete the missile shield deal.

"We feel at the moment a greater concern for our safety," said Bogdan Klich, the Polish defence minister, evoking fears of a resurgent Russia widespread in the former Eastern Bloc.

"That's why every installation of the western world on the Polish territory has its meaning, because it anchors Poland more deeply to the West."

While America says the shield is designed to destroy lone-missiles from "rogue states" such as Iran, Russia considers it a strategic encirclement that undermines its nuclear deterrent. If agreed now, the system, which would twin the Polish missile silo with a radar station in the Czech Republic, would be ready by around 2012.

Mr Klich said that Poland and the US were "really at the finish line of these talks" over missile defence, hinting that Washington was finally prepared to meet Polish security demands in return for housing the missile silo.

Most significantly, Poland wants American-run Patriot missile batteries on its territory, in what it considers the best defence against potential Russian retaliation.

"It seems that the Americans have changed their view due to the situation in the Caucasus," Mr Klich said.

"In the eyes of Washington, this conflict has proven that Russia isn't a stable partner and continues to consider its international surroundings as its exclusive sphere of influence."

Analysts suggest that the conflict in Georgia has sent shockwaves through countries that once lay behind the Iron Curtain.

"Appeasement is over," said Carina O'Reilly, European Security Editor of Jane's Defence Weekly. "With Russian tanks rolling into Georgia, there's a feeling [among former eastern bloc states] that the tanks could roll over their borders too.

"There's a certain urgency now."

Mr Tusk, once considered to considerably more Russia-friendly than his Moscow-sceptic predecessor Jaroslaw Kaczynski, is now making that urgency clear.

"Our arguments about the need for a permanent presence of US troops and missiles on Polish soil have been taken seriously by the American side," he said. "The events in the Caucasus show clearly that such security guarantees are indispensable.

"As soon as we are sure that Poland's security has been reinforced to the degree we want, we're not going to wait for hours to sign a deal."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... hield.html
[i]‘We are not interested in the possibilities of defeat’ - Queen Victoria, 1899[/i]
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