The Americans are on their way

5th March 2010

© PD US troops could soon be based in Poland Share:

American soldiers could soon be calling Poland home after President Lech Kaczynski ratified an agreement allowing for the deployment of US troops on Polish soil.

Under the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) up to 100 American servicemen and women, the first foreign forces to be based in Poland since the departure of the Red Army in the early 1990s, will come to Poland next month in order to man a battery of Patriot missiles.

The presence of the missiles have raised concerns in Russia, especially as they will be located about 100 kilometres from the Russian border, although Bogdan Klich, Poland’s defence minister, has said the location has “no strategic or political significance”.

Russian grumbling and unease over the presence of US troops right next door could also increase after the Polish government last week decided to agree to the stationing of US interceptor missiles as part of new missile shield designed to ward off attack from “rogue states”.

In a statement the government said that it accepted the “signing of a protocol modifying the accord signed by the Polish and American governments on the installation on our territory of anti-ballistic missile interceptors concluded in Warsaw on August 20, 2008.”

Warsaw stressed that “in line with the new concept, the system is primarily to guard against Iranian short and medium range missiles by using existing defence systems.”

The new system replaces the original Bush-era missile shield envisaged in the agreement, which was cancelled by President Barack Obama after fierce criticism from Moscow, which had condemned it as security threat.

At first Moscow accepted that the new SM-3 missiles, which the US wants to have in place by 2015, posed little or no threat, but in recent weeks it has started to voice grave reservations. Late last month the Russian foreign ministry said it had “serious questions” over the policy behind the SM-3 system after Romania agreed to host the missiles.

Russia could be further annoyed that the Polish-based interceptors are expected to be located at the Redzikowo air-force base, near the northern town of Slupsk, where the controversial Bush-era missiles were once due to go.

But for the Polish government, the missiles, while officially protecting the West from attack, provide a sought-after symbol of security against a Russia it regards as eager to re-assert itself in Central Europe.