Sikorski meets Rice this afternoon

[struggle4progress]

Source: Polish Radio

Created: 07.07.2008 13:09

At 16.30 CET Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski will meet Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to discuss the protracted negotiations ver the antimissile shield.

The talks between the US and Poland appear to have stalled after PM Donald Tusk announced last Friday that his government is still not convinced that the antimissile system would strengthen and not weaken Poland’s security.

After the talks with the Polish foreign minister, Rice will leave for Prague, Tuesday afternoon to sign the finalised agreement between the US and Czech Republic, where the radar part of the system is to be based. The Czech parliament has yet to vote through the proposal, however.

The Secretary of State is then scheduled to travel to Warsaw, where the PSP news agency is still saying an agreement could be signed with Poland on the ten inceptor missiles planned to be stationed in the north of the country ...

Read more: http://www.polskieradio.pl/thenews/news/?id=86429

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Antimissile shield talks go to the wire
Created: 07.07.2008 12:02

Gazeta Wyborcza daily writes that ... Kaczynski prepared a television address in which he was going to announce that he would take over the initiative in the Polish-American talks, but he cancelled his TV appearance following a meeting with Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski ...

Fakt tabloid claims that ... “Fifteen minutes before the press conference, PM Donald Tusk paced his office up and down thinking about his decision. Finally, he told his closest colleagues: ‘We shall keep on negotiating. Our security is the most important thing,” writes the tabloid.

The Polish-American negotiations regarding the US antimissile installations in Poland are likely to be finalised by July 10, predicts Rzeczpospolita daily ...

http://www.polskieradio.pl/thenews/press-review/?id=86418

No breakthrough in U.S.-Polish missile talks
Mon Jul 7, 2008 1:37pm EDT
By Sue Pleming

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski met U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday to salvage negotiations on a missile defense system opposed by Russia, but there was no early sign of a deal.

The talks were "productive" but negotiations would continue, Sikorski said after his meeting with Rice at the U.S. State Department, indicating there had not been a breakthrough.

"As regards missile defense, we have clarified our positions and we have had some productive ideas. The talks continue," Sikorski told reporters, without providing details.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack was noncommittal over whether a deal was close. The talks were held hours before Rice was due to leave on a trip to Europe that could include a stop in Poland if a deal could be reached in time ...

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN0742020420080707

Polish top diplomat to discuss missile shield with McCain, Obama
11:38
07/ 07/ 2008

WARSAW, July 7 (RIA Novosti) - Poland's foreign minister has flown to the United States for talks on the deployment of U.S. interceptor missiles on Polish soil with presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain.

Polish-American talks on Washington's plans to place 10 interceptor missiles in Poland as part of its missile defense shield have stalled. Poland's prime minister said on Friday his country was not satisfied with the terms offered by the U.S., but was ready for further dialogue.

Polish television said Radoslaw Sikorski would speak with Democratic candidate Obama over the phone on Monday, and meet with McCain, the Republican hopeful, on Tuesday or Wednesday ...

http://en.rian.ru/world/20080707/113382696.html

Eco study on U.S radar base in Czech Rep not fully usable- Bursik
Prague- ...

The Czech opposition and most of the Czech public are opposed to the radar base that is to be built in the military district Brdy, some 90km southwest of Prague.

"As specific technical details are not yet known, the study in question is only formulated in general terms and it can only be used as a reference point," < Martin Bursik, Environment Minister and a deputy prime minister> wrote to <Communist deputy Vladimir Konicek>.

Konicek has been trying for months to find out the exact technical data of the radar station.

He has written three times to Defence Minister Vlasta Parkanova (the Christian Democrats, KDU-CSL), but he has been invariably told the data are secret ...

http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/news/index_view.php?id=321993

Protest prepared against Rice's visit to Prague

Prague- Several thousand protesters are expected to come to the Tuesday demonstration against a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Prague on Tuesday morning, activists Jan Tamas and Jan Majicek told CTK today.

Rice will visit the Czech Republic to sign the Czech-U.S. treaty on the stationing of a U.S. radar base on Czech soil ...

http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/news/index_view.php?id=322047

[whistle]

1. Are they preparing to once more rain down missiles on Russia?