Shields Up

Anti-ballistic SM-3 missiles that will make up the NATO missile-shield in Poland and the entire Central European region have gone through final testing in Hawaii, It is expected the system will become fully operational by 2018 and based near Redzikowo in the north of Poland.

 

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

 

In September, the Sejm authorized the President to ratify the technical agreement regarding the Redzikowo base with the United States.

To Have, and Have Not

38% of Poles believe that Poland should seek allies in the European Union once the United States resigned its anti-missile shield plans.

28% said Poland should become neutral. 13% are for continuation of alliance with the United States while 10% said Poland should propose a new approach to relations with Russia. 11% of the pollees did not offer any opinion according to polling agency PAP.

President Obama announced on Sept. 17 that the United States abandoned plans for a large missile defense shield in eastern Europe.

Under the Polish-U.S. accord signed last year, 10 ground base interceptors were to be installed in Redzikowo, northern Poland, as part of a larger system that would include a radar system in the Czech Republic, to counter emerging missile threats from rogue state.



The U.S. plan has angered Russia, which deemed 10 defensive rockets a serious threat to its national security and arsenal of 2,000 ICBMs.

Majority Opposed to Missile Defense Shield

A survey conducted on a random representative national sample of 903 adult Poles June 1-4, shows a majority are opposed to the proposed Missile Defense Shield to be located in Poland.

60 % oppose plans by the United States to locate 10 anti-ballistic missile silos in Poland as part of a missile defence shield against possible future nuclear terror
attacks by so-called rogue states like Iran and North Korea.

Warsaw-based CBOS pollsters also found 26 % support the plan, which US President Bush and Polish President Lech Kaczynski are expected to discuss in Washington DC in mid-July.

Opposition to the project grew by five per cent since February and appears to be rooted in fears sparked by Russian threats to point its missiles at Europe should nearby Poland host the US missile shield.

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