U.S. to shift to others if missile defense talks with Poland fail

2008年09月19日

WASHINGTON, July 1 (Xinhua) -- The United States, which is focusing on getting a missile defense deal done with Poland, warned on Tuesday that it could turn to other countries if such a negotiation fails to make progress.

"Our focus and our efforts right now are on coming up with a definitive answer in terms of the deployment that have been suggested and proposed for Poland, and we are not at this point involved in any negotiation on alternate sites because the goal is to conclude an agreement with Poland," State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said.

"We've had these conversations for a long time, and I think you'd see a resolution of this somewhere in the coming days. But whether that's in a week or two weeks, I'm not really in a position to say. It will all depend on the pace and structure of the negotiations," he said.

However, the spokesman also noted that "If for some reason those arrangements don't work out, then I am sure we would look elsewhere."

The United States, planning to deploy 10 missile interceptors in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic as part of its European missile shield, started negotiations with Poland on the missile shield issue in 2002. But the two countries have failed to make any significant progress in the past several years.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said in mid-June that the United States still hoped for a deal with Poland. "But we have always said that there are other options available to us. There are several European nations that could host the (missile) interceptors and Lithuania is one of them."

It was reported that Washington is talking with Lithuania about possibly installing part of a planned missile shield there if negotiations with Poland fail.

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