14 May 2008

Another round of negotiations on building part of the U.S. National Missile Defense (NMD) system in Poland took place in Warsaw May 6 and 7. Four new task forces will now be appointed to assess the risks of installing parts of the "missile shield" in Poland and gauge the prospects of U.S. assistance in modernizing the Polish military.

The first task force will be made up of Polish and American intelligence experts. Their job will be to assess potential military threats to Poland as a result of installing parts of the missile shield here. They will forward their assessment to the second task force which will be looking at modernizing the military in light of Poland's defensive needs and capabilities. The third task force will identify obstacles in selling defense equipment and transferring protected technologies. The fourth task force will be looking at how modernizing the Polish military can be financed.

The American delegation in Warsaw was headed by Stephen Mull, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. Mull said the task forces would compile their final report, complete with proposals for short and long-term assistance, by the end of July.

Poland's chief negotiator on the missile shield, Deputy Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski, said that once the task force recommendations were in "we will know what Poland needs and who will be able to pay for it."

The United States approached Poland and the Czech Republic at the beginning of last year to install parts of the NMD system in those countries. Poland was invited to host a base of 10 interception missiles and the Czech Republic a radar base.

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