The Washington delegation is led by Robert Loftis, Senior Advisor in the Bureau of Political and Military Affairs, US Department of State.
During the first round of consultations it is planned to adjust a legal status of the American military and civil experts in the territory of Poland.
By 2012, the USA expects to fully commission the East-European ABM Defense Sector that as promised by the White House will ensure security of Europe against possible threats emanating from so-called “rogue states” and first of all from Iran. However, Russia opposing the deployment of such systems near its borders is concerned that installation of the ABM radar in Czechia and GBIs in Poland may affect the global strategic balance.
Recently, the Polish stand with respect to the odious project was modified to a certain degree. While this summer Polish President Leh Kachinsky during his visit to Washington claimed that the construction of the ABM shield is predetermined and even mentioned a possible deadline for all formalities, today “the new Polish Government would like to hold consultations with NATO, Czechia, Germany and even Russia.”
Quality Polish newspaper “Zhechpospolita” reports that according to diplomatic sources, Poland is not going to be in a hurry to take a final decision on this matter. Moreover, the Polish Government of Donald Tusk would like at first to wait for results of the presidential elections in the USA in 2008 and new administration to come to power.
In spite of illusiveness of this hope, in implementation of which so many financial interests have been invested, the expectations of Poland are justified. For example, recently experts of respectful American universities claimed that the ground-based interceptors to be deployed in Poland will be capable of killing Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles flying to the USA. And although the US ABM Agency denied the correctness of this theory, Warsaw would like to examine these studies in detail. Moreover, the new Polish Government is skeptical about the US allegations that the ABM shield will primarily defend the European allies.
US Undersecretary of State John Rood made unsuccessful efforts to refute this thesis claiming that the purpose of ABM system deployment in Europe was well-known from the very beginning and never changed. He added that initially the Americans planed to deploy the ABM systems in the eastern part of the USA to defend against a threat from the Middle East. However, finally they came to a conclusion that it is more effective to deploy such systems in Europe and thus protect its NATO allies. The same position was publicized also by British the Financial Times:”These GBIs will defend primarily not the USA itself but Poland and its neighbors.”
Such open pressure on Warsaw was intended to resolve its uncertainty to speed up the ABM talks. The same intention was promoted by certain news agencies reporting that the Czech party has already granted its unconditional approval to installation of the ABM radar in its territory, while currently it also holds active consultations.
In response to the aforesaid, Prague claimed that the ABM systems in Czechia and Poland should be installed simultaneously. Besides, Czech Prime Minister Miroslav Topolanek and Polish Prime-Minister Donald Tusk at their meeting on December 10 were unanimous to claim that both parties will coordinate their stands relating to deployment of the US ABM systems.
At this time so important for Washington, Polish mass media unleashed discussions that the Polish people “do favor to the USA” negotiating on the ABM systems and participating in the Iraq and Afghanistan missions. Polish weekly “Polityka” expresses this idea in one phrase asking from the cover page of its latest issue: “Afghanistan? What are we doing there?”
The concern was caused by recent detention of seven Polish servicemen who were charged with murder of peaceful Afghans.
Similar questions are raised in other newspapers too that ask a rhetorical question: “Why are the Polish people paid so poorly for this favor?”
Evidently, this question will be raised continually in the course of joint consultations on the prospects of the US ABM systems in Poland. Besides the hard guarantees of security, the Polish citizens are concerned with a repeated delay in relaxation of visa requirements for their country due to any reasons as promised by the Americans long ago.
The White House claims that “the US entry-visa requirements are not to be relaxed for the countries with high percentage of visa denials either due to security reasons, or due to the concern that having arrived to the USA the visa holder would not return back before the deadline and would stay in the country to work illegally.” Such exaggerated American’s fear of “the alleged Polish plumber” just injures the feelings of the Polish people.
The concern of the Polish leadership with respect to inviolability of the US commitments was aggravated by the US Congress that approved a defense bill with important reservations. It states that Poland and Czechia should grant their “final agreement” with the construction of the ABM systems before this bill may be implemented. The project funding also will be suspended until the Secretary of Defense guarantees to the Congress that the system will be operable.
The House approved the bill by an absolute majority of votes. If it is approved by the Senate, it will be submitted to the President for signing. The bill says that the plan of US ABM system deployment in Europe is subject to an independent expert examination. Thereafter, the Congressmen will approve provision of money.
According to the bill, not later than 30 days after it comes into effect, the US Secretary of Defense should provide for an independent examination funded from the budget.
Besides, it is necessary to study threats of the Iranian ballistic missiles for Europe and options of Russian participation in the European ABM system. The US Department of Defense is to investigate alternative options of defense against the aforesaid threats.
It should be noted that the bill provides only US$ 225 million for the ABM systems in Eastern Europe instead of US$ 310 million as requested by President Bush. Thus, the Congressmen cut the expenditures by 27 per cent.
The US Department of State and Russian Foreign Ministry also start negotiations on the ABM systems today in Budapest. The American delegation will be headed by above mentioned US Undersecretary of State John Rood, and the Russian delegation – by Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Kislyak.
Obviously, in such alignment Warsaw will not be too active at the talks with the American party. On the contrary, it is most probably that the Polish negotiators will try to freeze the consultations until the nest year when Donald Tusk is going to visit Moscow and Washington. Besides, the Polish Foreign Minister spoke for Polish-Russian talks on the US ABM systems. To this end, a task team of consular services of both countries has been established.
