Poland's foreign minister said Russian threats have to be considered as his country weighs a proposal from the US to install missile defense interceptors on Polish territory.
In talks with US officials this week, Radek Sikorski is pressing for security aid from the US as part of any deal. Polish officials have suggested that the aid could come in the form of shorter range anti-missile systems that could be used to counter threats from neighboring countries including Russia.
"Poland is a part of both the EU and NATO where we take democratic values, procedures, institutions, respect for human rights for granted, and we border some countries where trends are not necessarily in a direction that we welcome," Sikorski said.
Russia has stridently opposed the missile defense plan and has threatened to retarget nuclear missiles at Poland to counter what it sees as a US attempt to undermine the Russian military deterrent. The US says the proposed system is intended to protect Western countries from missiles fired from Iran and would be impotent against Russia's massive arsenal.
While Sikorski would not elaborate on the Polish negotiating stance ahead of talks with senior US officials including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates yesterday, he indicated that Poland is less fixated on acquiring missile systems as part of a deal than it is in securing greater assurances by the US for Poland's security.
"We are not particularly glued to technical solutions, but we are interested in intensifying cooperation with the US," he said. "The US still, in Poland, has a unique credibility in the defense area."
Poland does not see Russia as an immediate threat, Sikorski said. But he emphasized that missile defense project has risks for Poland.
"It is something that we have to take into account," he said, speaking of the Russian threats. "It is something that is a risk and not just a political risk that is involved in this project."
Earlier on Thursday at a speech given at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank where he once worked, Sikorski compared Poland's situation to that of a homeowner who is asked by a friendly neighbor to allow a satellite dish to be installed on his roof, then is confronted by another neighbor who insists that the dish will harm his health and threatens violence.
"You and I know, a dish does not make you sick," he said, continuing the metaphor. "The question is, what can we do together to address an unreasonable neighbor?"
Since becoming foreign minister under Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Sikorski has argued for asking more from Washington in exchange for Poland's support in military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the missile defense system the administration of US President George W. Bush plans to install in Poland and the neighboring Czech Republic.
Tusk and Sikorski have taken a tougher stance on missile defense since taking office in November than the previous government of former Polish prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who opened talks early last year and firmly supported the plan.
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