US:WARSAW AND Washington formally signed an agreement yesterday to locate part of a controversial US "missile shield" system on Polish soil.
The agreement, yet to be ratified by the Polish parliament, was signed in Warsaw by US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and her Polish counterpart, foreign minister Radek Sikorski.
The ceremony marked the end of 18 months of what Polish prime minister Donald Tusk called "tough but friendly" talks over a system Washington says it needs to protect the US and Europe from what it calls "rogue states", primarily Iran and North Korea.
"It is in our defence that we do this," said Dr Rice after the signing. "This US base will help us to face the threats of the 21st century. Missile defence, of course, is aimed at no one."
Moscow begs to differ. It views the plans with alarm and has warned that, if US missiles are installed in northern Poland as planned by 2012, this will pose a threat to Russian national security. Leading Russian generals have vowed to train missiles stationed in a Russian enclave of Kaliningrad on the new facility.
Warsaw held out on agreeing to the plan until Washington agreed, as part of the deal, to help boost Poland's own air defences by relocating Patriot missiles and personnel from Germany to the northern Poland base.
Polish officials admitted yesterday that events in Georgia had concentrated their minds on reaching agreement.
For Poland, the missile defence plan joins membership of the EU and Nato, as another insurance policy against the prospect of Russian aggression. Polish president Lech Kaczynski, a staunch defender of the missile defence plan, said yesterday that no friend of Poland would feel threatened by the base.
"No-one who has good intentions towards us and towards the Western world should be afraid of it," he said.