US, Poland agree on outline deal for missile bases

The outline deal reached in Washington this week improves chances that President Bush will have the key elements of his missile defense plan in place by the time he leaves office, but there is no guarantee the shield will ever be built or would work as advertised.

Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski said he and the chief US negotiator, John Rood, finished negotiations Tuesday and that results of the talks were given to Poland's prime minister and foreign minister, who "now have to make a political decision — yes or no."

A senior State Department official confirmed that the negotiators reached a deal and that it now rests with the Polish government to give the final nod. There was no immediate comment from Prime Minister Donald Tusk or Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski. The US official spoke on condition of anonymity because Poland has not announced its answer.

Negotiations over the 10 missile interceptors ran nearly 18 months and were more contentious than the US had anticipated.

The site would be linked to a missile-tracking radar that Washington wants to place in the Czech Republic. The Czech government has agreed in principle to the plan, but parliament's approval is still needed.

Officials have been trying to reach a deal with the two countries before Bush leaves office in January. The Pentagon wants to have the Polish and Czech sites in running order by about 2012.

The Polish government has been driving a hard bargain, in part because most Poles strongly oppose the base.

Talks had bogged down lately over Polish demands for billions of dollars worth of military aid from the United States. The Polish government argues that the US security upgrade is necessary because Russia has threatened to target Poland with nuclear missiles if it should allow the interceptors.

The Bush administration responded with a $20 million request, now before Congress.

Poland also wanted the United States to do more to include Russia and NATO in its plans, which the Bush administration has tried to do. NATO endorsed the plan earlier this year, and there are tentative plans to combine the U.S. long-range system with one run by NATO that could defend against shorter-range missiles.

If Poland ends up agreeing to the deal, the two countries still would have to reach an agreement formalizing the legal status of the base and its personnel — how they should be treated and what their legal responsibility would be on Polish territory.

Russia is staunchly against the US plans, arguing that US military installations in former Soviet satellites so close to its borders would pose a threat Russian security. Moscow has threatened to aim its own missiles at any eventual base in Poland or the Czech Republic.

'No threat' to Kremlin's vast nuclear arsenal

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Wednesday the US plans will "bring risk rather than security."

The US maintains that the plan poses no threat to the Kremlin's vast nuclear arsenal.

"We keep repeating for the Russians' benefit, as well as anybody else's who is listening, this isn't about Russia," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Wednesday. "As a matter of fact ... we would like Russia to cooperate on the issue of missile defense."

The Russians, despite their heated rhetoric, seem to have come to accept that they are unlikely to stop the system. They said as much during talks earlier this year with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who have been pushing a series of proposals intended to make the project more palatable for the Russians.

Russian officials have suggested, however, that the next US president may find the system more trouble than it is worth. It would cost many billions and faces years of technical challenges.

After decades of development, at a cost exceeding $100 billion, the missile defense system now in place in America — mainly at bases in Alaska and California — is unproven and unpopular in Congress. It began as a way to stop long-range missiles launched in a doomsday scenario during the Cold War years when the United States and the Soviet Union targeted each other with thousands of nuclear missiles.

The system now envisioned is more modest, designed to stop a limited attack by North Korea.

Presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain is a strong supporter of the Bush administration European shield plan. Presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama has expressed skepticism about costs of the proposed project but, if elected, could be bound by agreements the administration is trying to lock up with the two NATO allies.