Warsaw and Washington looked set to close a deal yesterday on basing a US missile shield in Poland, despite Moscow’s vehement opposition to the plan, which has been given a new edge by Russia’s conflict with Georgia.
A source close to the negotiations said Washington had “given very serious consideration” to Warsaw’s demands — Poland wants the US to provide major security guarantees in return for hosting a base — and that the “stars are aligning.”
After meeting with US negotiator John Rood on Wednesday evening, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said their “positions have got closer.”
Earlier rounds were often low-key, but the talks have been thrown back into the spotlight by fighting between Russia and Georgia.
“Today we’re facing a new international situation. The situation doesn’t change our arguments but in my view reinforces them,” Sikorski said.
On Tuesday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the talks seemed “on the right track.”
“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,” he said.
Washington wants to base 10 interceptor missiles in Poland plus a radar facility in the Czech Republic by 2011 to 2013 to complete a system already in place in the US, Greenland and the UK.
It insists the shield is meant to ward off attacks by “rogue states,” notably Iran, and is not directed against Russia.
The shield, however, has become a major source of tension with Moscow, which dubs it a security threat aimed at undermining Russia’s nuclear deterrent, and has vowed a firm response if the Czechs and Poles go ahead.
A US-Polish deal would be highly symbolic, showing a resurgent Russia that flexing its muscle in the Caucasus has not given it a new say on its Cold War-era turf further north.
Amid concerns about the potential risks of hosting the silos, Warsaw has long pressed the US side to provide a THAAD or Patriot air-defense system.
Defense Minister Bogdan Klich said that Washington might deploy a permanent Patriot missile base in Poland, operated by US soldiers.
“One battery is just the start. Once it’s based permanently in Poland, that would enable the launch of a modernization program which by 2018 would provide a complete anti-missile defense system,” Klich told the daily Rzeczpospolita.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS