WARSAW (AP) – Poland and Czech Republic are in
favor of hosting a proposed U.S. missile defense system,
the Czech premier said Monday after meeting with his Polish
counterpart.
“We agreed that both countries will probably give a
positive response to the U.S. letter, and only then will we
open negotiations,” Mirek Topolanek said after talks with
Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski.
“I think it is in our joint interest to negotiate this
initiative and to build … the missile defense,” he said.
The United States said last month that it wanted to
install a missile defense system in Eastern Europe, to
guard the eastern United States and Europe from missiles
launched from “rogue nations” in the Middle East.
It would be the first such site in Europe.
Two other bases – at Fort Greely, Alaska, and Vandenberg
Air Force Base in California – would confront possible
threats from rogue nations elsewhere.
Kaczynski said last week he supported the U.S. proposal to
build missile interceptors in Poland and an accompanying
radar site in the Czech Republic.
The U.S. plans have drawn the ire of Russia, which says
such a missile defense could disturb the balance of power
in the region and fuel a new arms race.
On Monday, Kaczynski brushed aside the Kremlin’s fears,
saying “the missile defense is not directed against any
normal state.”
“Any statement suggesting that the missile defense would
change the alignment of forces in Europe is a
misunderstanding,” he said. “This truth is being conveyed
to our partners in the west and the east.”
