Polish minister mindful of Russian concern over U.S. missile sites

By: VANESSA GERA - Associated Press | Wednesday, November 1, 2006 7:04 PM PST ∞

WARSAW, Poland -- Poland will take Russia's concerns into account as it weighs whether to allow the United States to build a missile defense site on its territory, the country's defense minister said Wednesday.

"The Russian Federation has made its position known and Russia is a very important neighbor of ours, and we take the views of our neighbors into consideration," Defense Minister Radek Sikorski told The Associated Press before heading to Washington, where he will meet Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

"Russia has the ability to respond to any such deployment with practical measures that affect our security, so obviously Russia's position is important," Sikorski said.

Washington opened exploratory talks with Warsaw about two years ago amid efforts to set up a ground base in Europe that would expand the U.S. missile defense system -- which already has missile interceptor sites in Alaska and California. The United States has been considering Poland or the Czech Republic, both former Soviet satellites that are now NATO members.

A missile site in Poland would further cement a strong alliance with the United States. But it could complicate already uneasy relations with Russia, Poland's major supplier of natural gas and oil. Some in Poland also are concerned that a site might make the country more vulnerable to terrorists or regimes seeking to attack U.S. targets.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said last month that a missile site in Poland would undermine security and stability, and warned of unspecified measures in response.

A top Russian general, Yevgeny Buzhinsky, also said two weeks ago that Moscow would view any deployment of U.S. missile defense components in eastern Europe as a security threat and take retaliatory measures.

"The deployment of missile defenses near the Russian borders could pose a real threat to our deterrent forces," Buzhinsky, the head of the Defense Ministry's international military cooperation department, said in an article published Oct. 17 in the daily Izvestia.

"We would view that as an unfriendly gesture on behalf of the United States, some eastern European nations and NATO as a whole. Such actions would require taking adequate retaliatory measures of military and political character," he said.

Flush with money from higher oil and gas prices, Russia under President Vladimir Putin has become more assertive toward its former satellites. It slapped an array of sanctions on tiny Georgia after a spat over the arrests of Russian personnel on espionage charges. Natural gas giant Gazprom briefly interrupted gas supplies to Ukraine last winter in a price dispute.

Separately, Sikorski said he hopes that NATO will choose Poland to be the site of a planned allied ground surveillance system. The system would include ground radar, radar systems mounted on planes and unmanned drones allowing NATO forces to monitor ground movements from the air.

NATO is considering several locations, among them a base in Powidz, western Poland.

"It would be the first hard piece of NATO infrastructure in the new member countries," Sikorski said. "It would be a signal to us that our security is taken as seriously as the security of the old NATO members."

"Poland needs more visible signs of NATO presence in Poland," he said.

Poland is a strong U.S. ally with 900 troops in Iraq, where it commands an international mission. Warsaw also recently announced plans to increase its presence in Afghanistan in February to 1,000 troops from the current 187.

Many of the Polish troops will form a "tactical reserve" that will be deployed mainly to eastern Afghanistan, but will be available to go wherever they might be needed in the country, Sikorski said.

"The troops will be truly at the disposal of the ISAF commander," Sikorski said, referring to NATO's International Security Assistance Force. That means in extreme circumstances they could be asked to fight the resurgent Taliban, he said.

"We hope the Taliban go home and make a contribution to rebuilding their country, but if they challenge the legitimate democratically elected government, we are there to enforce peace," he said.

First name only. Comments including last names, contact addresses, e-mail addresses or phone numbers will be deleted. Attempts to misrepresent your identity or impersonate any person will not be approved. All comments are screened before they appear online, so please keep them brief. Comments reflect the views of those commenting and not necessarily those of the North County Times or its staff writers. Click here to view additional comment policies.