Anti-missile shopping

The President of Poland intervened in negotiations with the United States

Yesterday in Washington, another round of negotiations began between Poland and the United States on the deployment of ten interceptor missiles of the American missile defense system (ABM) on Polish territory . In Warsaw, many consider this stage to be the final one - after it, either a bilateral agreement or a communique about the failure of negotiations will be signed. Following the chief Polish negotiator, Deputy Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski, the head of Polish diplomacy Radoslaw Sikorski is going to fly to the United States. If the parties agree, this will most likely be announced on July 8 during the visit of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Poland.

About a year ago in Washington, Polish President Lech Kaczynski said that the issue of missile defense was a foregone conclusion. Then Poland accepted all the US conditions and was even ready to pay for the American base. However, the coming to power of the Donald Tusk government in October 2007 radically changed the dialogue with the Americans. Warsaw demanded from the United States military assistance worth up to $20 billion, including updating the air defense system, as compensation for the deployment of interceptor missiles. Negotiations have reached a dead end.

Last week, President Kaczynski tried to take the initiative. He sent the head of his administration, former Foreign Minister Anna Fotyga, to Washington. She was supposed to inform overseas partners about the unchangeable opinion of the Polish president - an ardent supporter of the deployment of anti-missile missiles in Poland - and at the same time probe the American position. Mrs. Fotyga spoke with all the key figures in the American presidential administration, the Pentagon and the US Congress, and also met with advisers to both presidential candidates.

After this, some experts started talking about an open war between the cabinet and the presidential administration. “When it turned out that Mrs. Fotyga was in Washington, I thought: maybe she was seduced by the low dollar exchange rate and went shopping,” said the head of the prime minister’s political advisers, Slawomir Nowak, ironically. He called the actions of the presidential envoy harmful for Poland, and the visit itself as intended for “use in domestic politics.” Foreign Minister Sikorsky noted that “the lady’s visit is contraindicated in the current negotiating situation on the issue of missile defense.” Prime Minister Tusk noted with bewilderment that at “the key moment of negotiations, the most professional approach is very important.” He emphasized that Mr. Waszczykowski remains the only coordinator of the dialogue.

A Polish diplomat close to the negotiations described the situation as follows: “Our government has backed down from demands for several billion dollars to modernize the army, and the Americans have abandoned the Pentagon’s principle of “getting everything without giving anything in return.” Rumors are leaking that Poland, in exchange for accepting the base, will still receive some kind of short- or medium-range air defense systems from the United States.

Valery MASTEROV, Warsaw