Poland must sign missile shield deal before U.S. poll - Kaczynski

Poland must sign missile shield deal before U.S. poll - Kaczynski WARSAW, August 3, 2008 - Warsaw needs to sign a treaty on the deployment of elements of a U.S. missile shield on its territory before the upcoming U.S. presidential elections, the Polish president said on Sunday. The U.S. plans to deploy 10 interceptor missiles in northern Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic as part of a U.S. missile shield for Europe and North America against possible attacks from "rogue states," including Iran. "The missile shield is a good solution [for Poland]," Lech Kaczynski told national television. According to Kaczynski, his country should not take too much risk in advancing terms to the United States about the deployment of the missile shield elements on its territory because failure of these talks would aggravate the situation for Poland. In long-running negotiations with the U.S., Warsaw has been pushing Washington to spend billions of dollars improving Poland's air defenses in exchange for allowing the deployment of the interceptor missiles. Kaczynski said Poland must sign the missile shield deal with the current U.S. administration, without waiting for the U.S. presidential elections. Moscow strongly opposes the possible deployment of the U.S. missile shield, viewing it as a threat to its national security. Russia's Foreign Ministry has said that if U.S. strategic missile defense elements are deployed near Russia's borders, Moscow would be forced to respond with a "military-technical approach" rather than a diplomatic one. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg signed an agreement in Prague on July 8 on the deployment of a missile-tracking radar in the Czech Republic. The Czech-U.S. treaty has yet to be ratified by the Czech parliament or signed by the Czech president, however.