Together Stronger
January 10, 2008
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and his Czech counterpart Mirek Topolanek agreed to co-ordinate their negotiations with Washington at a meeting in Prague.
"Quality is more important than speed," Topolanek said after the news conference. But he added that the ideal scenario would be to submit the treaties to parliament after the NATO summit in Bucharest in April.
Tusk said Poland was not trying to stall the talks until after the US presidential election. "We are neither trying to speed up, or slow down the talks," he said. But the Polish PM reiterated that his country was not willing to strike a deal until it receives guarantees from the US that it would boost Poland's defenses.
New Polish government more wary of missile plan
His new center-right government has taken a tougher line towards Washington in the negotiations than the administration under conservative PM Jaroslaw Kaczynski.
After taking power in November, Tusk expressed disappointment that the US side had been unable to overcome Russian opposition to the missile shield plan. Warsaw decided to talk directly to Moscow about the US administration's proposals to deploy 10 missiles in Poland and a radar station in the Czech Republic. And high-level talks have been taking place today in Warsaw between Polish and Russian government officials.
Moscow said Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak wanted to make Poland aware in his talks with chief missile defense negotiator Witold Waszczykowski and top diplomat Radek Sikorski of the "risks of the proposed system" and "help it to recognize the problems for its own strategic security."
US officials say the system would protect the United States and its allies from attacks by states, such as Iran and North Korea, or a terrorist organization. But Moscow says the central European part of the shield would threaten its security and upset the balance of military power in Europe.