A Russian Foreign Ministry official, Andrei Nesterenko has said that Moscow sees no ground for the deployment of the American missile defense system in Poland.
Last week, Polish Foreign Minister Rodoslaw Sikorski and US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton signed a supplement to an agreement on missile defence at a ceremony in the Polish city of Krakow.
Rodoslaw Sikorski emphasized that the previous version of the agreement on the creation of the third position area provided for the deployment of intercontinental ballistic missiles in the country, but the new version – provides for American “Patriot” missile batteries. These can defend all NATO member countries from missile attacks from various places and directions but pose no threat to any other country.
The leader of Democratic Left Alliance, Grzegorz Napieralski said that his party opposed actively to the plans of the previous American Administration to deploy offensive weapons in Poland.
“Experts from various countries insisted that the US medium-range and long-range missiles were ineffective. Many people in Poland were against the possible deployment of missiles in the country because they were a powerful offensive system near the Russian border. This could trigger tension in relations with Moscow. I am pleased that President Obama and his Administration had rejected this plan. The further steps aimed at strengthening Poland’s security should be based on the principles of neighbourlyhood and should be part of the country’s involvement in NATO. This is very important because Poland gives priority to the European Union and NATO. At the same time we are aware of Poland’s place in geopolitics. Consequently, we should display goodwill and establish good relations with its neighbours,” says Grzegorz Napieralski.
Here is another opinion from a leading political analyst at the Institute of Slavic Studies, Boris Nosov.
“There is a need to search for joint solutions if a third country or international terrorism poses a threat that worries Russia, Poland, Europe as a whole and the US. “In this case, a unilateral decision has been taken. In fact, it is not a European solution and nobody tries to hide this. Russia cannot understand from which threats American “Patriot” batteries in Poland defend Europe. Earlier, we were told that this system is purely defensive and it poses no threat to Russia. We have heard these explanations more than once. However, we can’t understand why a noisy campaign is launched when Russia tries to export such a system to another country saying that Moscow threatens peace. This is illogical, of course,” says Boris Nosov.
