Biden, Polish leaders agree on revised missile plan

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By Matthew Mosk

UPDATED:

WARSAW -- The Obama administration reached a new agreement Wednesday with top Polish government officials to place a new generation of missile interceptors on Polish soil, a surprising turnabout from just a few weeks earlier when it appeared the United States was ready to abandon its missile defense program in Eastern Europe.

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk emerged from a lengthy private discussion to announce that Poland's participation in the missile defense system was, essentially, back on -- though in a new format that involves delivering a smaller number of defensive weapons in 2018.

Mr. Tusk said through a translator that he considered the revised proposal "a very interesting idea."

"We are ready to participate in this project," he said.

The hastily arranged vice presidential trip, which also will include stops in Romania and the Czech Republic this week, was intended to soothe relations and reassure the fledgling NATO members that the missile program was not being scrapped, and that the evolving policy should not be viewed as a snub or a weakening of U.S. security commitments to states in the region.

Mr. Biden had his work cut out for him. For starters, Poland and former Warsaw Pact nations once dominated by the Soviet Union already were feeling uneasy about the bilateral discussions between the United States and Russia. Then Mr. Obama, with no warning, announced the shift in missile policy on the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Poland, the wrong day for a country that remains deeply sensitive about its history with major world powers on its borders.

Placing defensive weapons in Poland and radar systems in the Czech Republic had been a program pushed aggressively by the George W. Bush administration, even though the plan raised strong objections from Russia, which argued the system could in time be used to undermine Moscow's nuclear arsenal deterrent. Polish officials came to welcome the idea, less for the military value of the weapons than for the added security of having an American military presence within their borders.

The vice president gamely waded into the sticky diplomatic situation, pouring on the charm as his meeting with Polish President Lech Kaczynski ran more than 30 minutes over its scheduled length. "When two old friends get together, they tend to talk," a smiling Mr. Biden said afterward.

Mr. Kaczynski described the conversation as "a source of optimism to me." While "there are some difficulties" still to discuss regarding missile defense, "we hope they will be resolved," he said.