WARSAW, Poland — Poland’s prime minister said Friday that the latest U.S. offer to persuade his country to accept a missile defense facility is unsatisfactory but stressed that he expects negotiations to continue.
Donald Tusk said that any deal must increase Poland’s security.
He said his government believes that the latest offer, made last week, does not fulfill that requirement.
However, Tusk made clear that Warsaw’s decision was not a final rejection of the U.S. plan to place 10 missile defense interceptors in Poland as part of a shield against a possible Iranian attack.
“I wouldn’t talk about the end, suspension or interruption,” he said at a news conference. “Negotiations, in my opinion, are continuing.”
In the U.S., White House spokesman Scott Stanzel also said that “discussions will continue with the Poles on missile defense and other issues.”
Russia has vehemently opposed the U.S. plans to place the site in Poland, as well as a linked radar-tracking system in the Czech Republic, and has threatened to target both countries with missiles of its own.
Without citing Russia’s opposition to the plan explicitly, Tusk argued that placing a missile defense facility in Poland, a Soviet satellite during the Cold War, would create security threats.
“The installation of the missile shield in Poland increases above all the security of the United States. That’s important for us, for the whole world,” Tusk said. “However, the fact that the installation would be built on Polish territory also increases certain risks and threats for Poland.”
Poland has demanded guarantee of a short-range Patriot missile battery on its soil.
