Poland’s defense minister Bogden Klich will go to the United States on Tuesday to talk with US Defense Secretary Robert Gates on the missile base program. Klich said that having a United States missile defense base will expose Poland to new threats, mainly terrorists. He added that it would be difficult to persuade the population to support the program unless it had more security measures.
“We believe that the injection of Americans funds into modernization of our armed forces would balance the risk to our security linked to the construction of the base,” Klich said to the Dziennik newspaper.
The base was proposed by the US as part of an international system that will protect the US and Europe from threats from so-called rogue states. This plan will have ten missile interceptors based in Poland. The Czech Republic which neighbors Poland will have a radar station.
However, Russia has been angered by the proposal. Russia says that an installation close to the border would threaten the country’s security. It warns that the missiles could target the base in Poland.
Klich said the country wants a military cooperation agreement that’s like the ones the United States has with some other countries.
“The Americans must be involved in the modernization of our armed forces, if we are to be a serious ally,” Klich explains.
So far, many people in Poland has expressed widespread dissatisfaction and anger over the lack of business contracts in Iraq along with being kept out of the United States visa program.
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