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Source: The Wall Street Journal

July 3, 2010

KRAKOW, Poland – The U.S. and Poland formally amended their missile-defense agreement to conform with the Obama administration’s new plan to protect the U.S. and it allies from missile attacks — especially those that could be launched by Iran.

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said President Obama’s new approach to missile defense, which relies initially on already-available weapons systems, is more likely to “be effective” and would protect Poland and the rest of Europe “from a bigger range of threats.”

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Ukraine that the door to NATO remains open. Deborah Lutterbeck reports. Courtesy of Reuters.

When Mr. Obama decided last year to scale back a Bush administration initiative to construct an anti-missile shield in Europe that would be able to knock down incoming intercontinental ballistic missiles, some critics said he risked alienating U.S. allies.

But on Saturday, Mr. Sikorski said, “the new version is a better one for us,” and chided reporters for not believing Polish government statements to that effect at the time of Mr. Obama’s announcement. “I think you didn’t believe us,” he said.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who also witnessed the signing of the accord at Krakow’s City Hall, said the new strategy is a better way to deal with “evolving missile threats, especially from Iran,” and would be able to protect parts of Europe more quickly than the Bush plan.

She also sought to reassure Russia, which has objected to the cooperation between the U.S. and Poland, that the missile-defense effort was not directed against its arsenal of ballistic missiles. “This is purely a defensive system. It’s not directed at Russia. It is not a threat to Russia.” Mrs. Clinton reiterated a U.S. invitation to Moscow to join in missile-defense efforts. “We believe the threats that we all face are common ones.” And Mr. Sikorski, the Polish foreign minister, said that Poland is willing to allow Russia to inspect its anti-missile facilities in order to reassure Moscow.

U.S. troops are already conducting training exercises with their Polish counterparts involving Patriot anti-missile and anti-aircraft interceptors. The Patriot battery is being set up on a Polish military installation near the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, home to Russian air and naval bases.

Mrs. Clinton was in Poland Saturday between visits to Ukraine and Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia. And she reiterated Washington’s insistence that Russia end its “occupation” of two contested parts of Georgia, where Russian troops remain after Russia’s military incursion into Georgia in 2008.