WORLD / Europe |
Poland: Russia intends to freeze Polish-US missile plan(Xinhua)Updated: 2007-06-28 10:40 WARSAW - Poland's Deputy Foreign Minister and also top missile defense negotiator wield Waszczykowski said that Russian President Vladimir Putin's proposal to relocate US planned missile defense system was intended to stall US talks with Poland and the Czech Republic. "I think it was an intentional effort to block or freeze the discussion," he said. "It was a smart idea by Putin to make things fuzzy," Polish PAP news agency quoted Waszczykowski as saying in an interview with the press. Despite this, he said the new round of US-Polish talks in Washington progressed quickly and the two sides may reach a deal in September to host US missile interceptors. "If so, it would be possible to begin construction for the interceptors by February." The deputy foreign minister said Poland doesn't oppose US-Russian discussions on the radar in Azerbaijan while negotiating installation in Poland. He added the radar in Azerbaijan is only a supplement to the missile defense system. The United States unveiled its plan in January to place a radar system in the Czech Republic and 10 interceptor missiles in Poland, as components of its missile defense shield. Russia has voiced strong opposition to the deployment. At the recent meeting of the Group of Eight major industrialized countries, Putin proposed to US President George W. Bush the shared use of a Russia-rented early warning radar in Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic.
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