By RIA Novosti
Moscow : Russia’s deputy foreign minister will fly to Warsaw on Wednesday night to discuss the planned deployment of U.S. missile shield elements in Poland, a ministry spokesman said.
Washington wants to place a radar in the Czech Republic and 10 missile interceptors in Poland, purportedly to counter a missile threat from Iran and other “rogue” states. Moscow said the European shield would destroy the strategic balance of forces and threaten Russia’s national interests.
Sergei Kislyak will discuss the situation in Poland on Thursday at the invitation of Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski.
In an interview with Gazeta Wyborcza on January 5, Sikorski said he could see no threat coming from Iran and did not rule out that a U.S. missile defense base in his country might not go ahead after all.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who took office in November, said shortly after his election that his government had “no rigid doctrine regarding the deployment of a U.S. missile defense base in the country,” and that the issue was “open for all arguments for and against.”
But Tusk slammed a recent warning made by the Russian military chief of staff that a possible U.S. anti-missile launch from Poland could provoke a Russian counterattack.