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'We're in the middle of the road. We have an agreement in principle,' Radoslaw Sikorski (above) told a press conference with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. -- PHOTO: AP
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WASHINGTON - POLAND said it has reached an 'agreement in principle' with Washington on modernising its air defences as part of talks to deploy a controversial United States missile shield on Polish territory.
Amid concerns about the potential risks of hosting US missile interceptors, Warsaw has been pressing the United States to help upgrade the Polish armed forces, and notably to boost the country's air-defence system.
'We are not at the end of the road as regards negotiations,' Poland's visiting Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said on Friday when asked if he had received reassurances about US aid to modernise Polish air defences.
'We're in the middle of the road. We have an agreement in principle,' Mr Sikorski told a press conference with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
'There is still a great deal of work for our experts,' he added.
'And, as I mentioned, the prime minister and the president will approve of whatever is done in the meantime, but yes, I'm satisfied that the principles we have argued for have been accepted,' Mr Sikorski said.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk recently demanded extra US security guarantees should Poland host the shield, possibly in the form of a Patriot missile air defence system similar to one already deployed in neighbouring North Atlantic Treaty Organisation-member Germany.
In an interview published on Thursday in Warsaw, Mr Sikorski said Poland wants a bilateral military accord with the United States if it agrees to host elements of a US missile shield.
He said the accord should be separate from Poland's affiliation with the United States as joint members of Nato.
Mr Sikorski told Rzeczpospolita that Poland's agreement to host the missile shield 'depends on the course of negotiations'. Washington and Warsaw are in talks regarding the possible installation of 10 interceptor missile sites in Poland by 2012 to ward off potential attacks by so-called 'rogue states', notably Iran.
The plan, which calls for associated radar stations in the Czech Republic, is strongly opposed by Russia. -- AFP
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