November 8, 2008
Posted: 04:07 PM ET
President-elect Obama spoke recently with the president of Poland.
(CNN) — U.S. President-elect Barack Obama has made "no commitment" to plans for a missile defense program in eastern Europe, despite a report on Polish president's Web site, an Obama adviser said Saturday. Obama spoke to President Lech Kaczynki over the phone about continuing military and political cooperation between the two countries and possibly meeting in person soon, both sides said. "President-elect had a good conversation with the Polish president and the Polish prime minister about the important U.S.-Poland alliance," said Denis McDonough, Obama's senior foreign policy adviser. However, Kaczynski's office on its Web site says that during the same conversation, Obama told Kaczynski that he intends to continue plans for a missile shield in eastern Europe. Obama's adviser denied the report. "President Kaczynski raised missile defense, but President-elect Obama made no commitment on it. His position is as it was throughout the campaign: That he supports deploying a missile defense system when the technology is proved to be workable," McDonough said. Russia is infuriated by U.S. plans for the missile-defense installation, which includes basing missile interceptors in Poland. The interceptor rockets would be linked to an air-defense radar system in the Czech Republic.
The United States has tried to mollify Moscow by stressing that the missile shield is directed at rogue states, such as Iran, and the number of interceptors in the shield would be "easily overwhelmed" by Russian forces. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, in his first state-of-the-nation speech since taking office earlier this year, warned this week that Russian missiles will be deployed against the planned system. "The Iskander missile system will be deployed in Kaliningrad region to neutralize, when necessary, the missile shield," Medvedev said. "We are also planning to use the resources of the Russian naval fleet for these purposes." U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Medvedev's announcement that Russia would deploy missiles in response to the shield is "disappointing." Updated 4:07 p.m. with McDonough statement Filed under: Barack Obama Popular Posts
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