WARSAW, Poland (AP)
By VANESSA GERA and MONIKA SCISLOWSKA
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Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her Polish counterpart signed a deal Wednesday to build a U.S. missile defense base in Poland, an agreement that prompted an infuriated Russia to warn of a possible attack against the former Soviet satellite.
The deal to install 10 U.S. interceptor missiles just 115 miles from Russia’s westernmost frontier also has strained relations between Moscow and the West, ties that already troubled by Russia’s invasion of its former Soviet neighbor, U.S. ally Georgia, earlier this month.
Rice and Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski signed the deal Wednesday morning.
“It is an agreement which will help us to respond to the threats of the 21st century,” she said afterward.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the agreement came after tough but friendly negotiations.
“We have achieved our main goals, which means that our country and the United States will be more secure,” he said.
After Warsaw and Washington announced the agreement on the deal last week, top Russian Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn warned that Poland is risking attack, and possibly a nuclear one, by deploying the American missile defense system, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported.
Poles have been shaken by the threats, but NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop dismissed them Tuesday as “pathetic rhetoric.”…
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