Poland Raises Stakes For U.S. Missile Shield

˝In Washington, I want to strongly emphasize the issues that are of interest to the Polish side,˝ Defence Minister Bogdan Klich said.

Poland's new centre-right government will not agree to host a U.S. anti-missile site unless Washington commits to boosting Polish air defences, Defence Minister Bogdan Klich told Reuters.

Klich said he would discuss Poland's demands, which also include a higher level of military cooperation, with Defence Secretary Robert Gates in Washington later this month.

"In Washington, I want to strongly emphasize the issues that are of interest to the Polish side," he said in an interview late on Tuesday.

"The first of these is the accompanying (air defence) package, without which, the Polish government's consent for the American installation is really difficult to imagine."

Klich travels to Washington to meet Gates on Jan. 14-16.

The U.S. administration is seeking to deploy 10 rockets in Poland and a radar station in the Czech Republic as part of its global "missile shield" against long-range ballistic missiles.

U.S. officials say the shield will protect the United States and its allies from attack by what it calls "rogue" states such as Iran and North Korea, or an al Qaeda-type organisation which could in the future seize a nuclear weapon.

The plan has met fierce resistance from Russia, which says the central European part of the shield would threaten its security and upset the balance of military power in Europe.

Warsaw's previous conservative government, which lost power in October, said such arguments showed Russia had not given up its imperial instincts towards central Europe.

Led by combative twins, President Lech Kaczynski and ex-prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the conservatives had refused to talk to Moscow on the issue, pushing relations between the two countries to new lows.

Klich said his government was keen to repair ties with Russia and would seek to convince Moscow it had nothing to fear.

He signalled, however, that occasional threats by Russian generals to take unspecified "steps" in response to the shield would not sway the Polish government.

"A dialogue with Russia is necessary to eliminate their subjective sense of threat (from the shield)," he said.

Asked if Russian protests could tip the balance when the final decision is made by Poland, Klich said:

"Personally, I can say the decision on the shield will be taken in Poland and its main criterion will be the national interest."

PATRIOTS

Klich said the new government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk would depart from the "done deal" approach of its predecessors in future talks on the shield with the U.S. allies.

He said the government wanted the United States to bolster Poland's outmoded air defence capabilities with short- and medium-range systems like the Patriot and THAAD rockets.

"The presence of a U.S. military installation in Poland undoubtedly makes Polish airspace more vulnerable," he said. "I'm speaking about this in categorical terms because... this is an essential part of Polish airspace security."

Warsaw was also seeking a greater U.S. commitment to come to Poland's aid as part of NATO's Article 5 multilateral defence clauses, he said.

"The key issue would be to include Poland in the U.S. defence system so that our American allies would have a much stronger motivation... to come to our aid, should, God forbid, a threat to our security arise," he said.

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Washington would listen to Polish requests and discuss them during Klich's visit to Washington.

"It's an extremely close relationship. It's also a negotiation," he told reporters.

Klich said that in Washington he would also hold talks with Democratic leaders in Congress to probe their commitment to the missile shield, taking into account that the Bush administration will be out of office next January.