In Warsaw, Vice President Biden Welcomes Poland’s Cooperation on Missile Defense System
EmailABC News' Karen Travers reports:
In Warsaw today, Vice President Biden welcomed the announcement from Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk that his country would participate in a revamped U.S. missile defense system in eastern Europe.
"We appreciate Poland has stepped up and agreed to host an element of the previous missile defense plan," the vice president said.
"Poland considers the new configuration for the missile shield as very interesting, necessary, and we are ready at the appropriate level to participate," Tusk said at the news conference with Biden.
Poland was the first stop on Biden's three day trip to Eastern Europe that appeared to be aimed at smoothing over relations with U.S. allies there after the Obama administration's announced it would abandon existing plans for a missile defense system based in Poland and the Czech Republic.
The White House announced last month that it was switching gears and instead of the land-based system developed by the Bush administration, would pursue a sea-based system to target short and medium range missiles aimed at Europe.
The announcement caught the central European allies off guard and was met with great concern by the leaders of Poland and the Czech Republic.
Biden's trip is the first visit by a high-level U.S. official to the region since the announcement and today he touted the revamped system as the best way "to defend against the emerging ballistic missile threats."
"Simply put, our missile plan is better security for NATO, and is better security for Poland, and ultimately better security for the United States of America," the vice president said.
Biden thanked Tusk and Polish President Lech Kaczynski for the service Polish troops have given in Afghanistan.
"They are genuine warriors, and they are making great sacrifices," he said. "We are thankful for your soldiers standing alongside of ours in Afghanistan, also in Iraq and the Balkans."
Biden later met with Polish veterans who have served in Afghanistan.
Biden's next stop is Romania on Thursday and he finishes his trip in the Czech Republic on Friday.
-Karen Travers
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People sometimes forget that Biden was not selected for his motor mouth, but for his respected foreign policy chops. It is nice to see an Administration with so many good tools to watch out for America’s interests (the Reagan, Bush Sr, and Clinton administrations likewise had deep teams).
Posted by: jhw539 | October 21, 2009, 3:17 pm 3:17 pm
People sometimes forget that Biden was not selected for his motor mouth, but for his respected foreign policy chops
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It’s too bad his chops didn’t realize Poland would want to talk about this sometime before midnight on the day of the announcement.
Posted by: MayBee | October 21, 2009, 3:28 pm 3:28 pm
“Did you even read the article? Obama said a month ago they were foregoing land based systems for a sea based on.
Guess what this “element” is?”
Concerned in OH | Oct 21, 2009 3:30:10 PM
The land based SM-3 interceptors are key elements of the short and medium range missile defense system that is being deployed. You should try reading real news articles, not just these short blogs and lists of talking points.
Posted by: jhw539 | October 21, 2009, 3:44 pm 3:44 pm
After Stimulus: 49 of 50 States Have Fewer Jobs!
*6 Million Jobs Shy of Administrations’ Projections…
Obama trying to boost party money, morale…
RNC Beats DNC in Money Race…
Posted by: turn to Chairman Mao for guidance | October 21, 2009, 3:44 pm 3:44 pm
“What’s hilarious about this little flip flop episode, they didn’t push their talking points out before they did it so now their bots have no idea what to say.”
Concerned in OH | Oct 21, 2009 3:44:58 PM
Flip flop? What are you talking about? The long-range interceptor plan was from the Bush administration. Obama has been consistent in preferring to focus on short and medium range interceptors, which have the best record of any systems, to address the currently deployed threats. Plunking some RIM-161 Standard Missile 3 into silos in Poland is consistent with Obama’s approach (and although not the cheapest implementation, is worth doing to assuage central European concerns).
Posted by: jhw539 | October 21, 2009, 3:57 pm 3:57 pm
It appears that the US has reversed itself again. The Obama administration insisted that they would opt for SEA-BASED INTERCEPTORS as a more feasible and less costly method of protecting against Iranian missile strikes, which got the support from some in the military community. Those supporters have to wonder what the White House is thinking now, or what rationalization they’ll offer for another flip-flop from Obama.
Posted by: Barack Obama, Real Man of Foreign Policy Genius | October 21, 2009, 3:59 pm 3:59 pm
“It appears that the US has reversed itself again. The Obama administration insisted that they would opt for SEA-BASED INTERCEPTORS as a more feasible and less costly method of protecting against Iranian missile strikes, which got the support from some in the military community. Those supporters have to wonder what the White House is thinking now, or what rationalization they’ll offer for another flip-flop from Obama.”
Uh, the SM3 can be ground based, as Israel is currently evaluating to supplement their Arrow system. It’s not like you have to add water to make them work. I think Obama supporters can handle the ‘flip flop’ of taking some of the SM3 systems and putting them in a bunker rather than a ship in order to assuage some allies and provide additional coverage to continental Europe.
Posted by: jhw539 | October 21, 2009, 4:03 pm 4:03 pm
The naive Obama caved in to Russian pressure not to place ANY anti-missile system on Polish or Czech soil–in order to please Putin and hopefully get cooperation on Iran. The White House then hailed Russian remarks that appeared to indicate that Moscow would take a harder line on Iran, saying that their concession on missile defense had improved relations with Russia and allowed for more cohesion on a national security issue.
However, Russia reversed itself last week, calling further sanctions “unproductive.”
Obama got schooled by Vlad the Terrible.
Posted by: I'm Not a President, but I Play One on TV | October 21, 2009, 4:33 pm 4:33 pm
“It is nice to see an Administration with so many good tools”
Yes, there certainly a lot of tools in this Administration.
Posted by: bgates | October 21, 2009, 4:45 pm 4:45 pm
“Obama got schooled by Vlad the Terrible.”
___________________________________
Who can forget President Bush staring lovingly into Putin’s eyes and gushing about seeing his soul . . .
What’s this I hear about Iran moving towards agreeing to ship its enriched nuclear material to Russia for processing into nuclear rods?
Posted by: julieterra | October 21, 2009, 4:46 pm 4:46 pm
What’s this I hear about Iran moving towards agreeing to ship its enriched nuclear material to Russia for processing into nuclear rods?
Posted by: julieterra | Oct 21, 2009 4:46:39 PM
“Moving towards agreeing” is diplomat-speak for saying nice things while making no commitment whatsoever–it’s meaningless. How would we ever know if the Iranians sent all their nuke material out anyway? They will never allow inspections.
Posted by: Libs, and the Lying Liars Who Elect Them | October 21, 2009, 5:01 pm 5:01 pm
I guess this should read:
Biden addresses stimulus plan for the U.S. state of Poland.. in form of missle shield.. which will never be built.
Posted by: DontGet818OnMeNow | October 21, 2009, 5:11 pm 5:11 pm
“How would we ever know if the Iranians sent all their nuke material out anyway? They will never allow inspections.”
____________________________________
How would you know this? Let me answer that for you – you don’t.
Posted by: julieterra | October 21, 2009, 5:39 pm 5:39 pm
Because the Iranians are sooo predictable..in other words, THEY LIE…
Posted by: Parallex View | October 21, 2009, 5:45 pm 5:45 pm
Another example of Obama’s infamous expiration dates.
Poland should not count on this either.
Obama shifts with the wind.
He really should take meds for his ADHD.
Posted by: tyler | October 21, 2009, 7:37 pm 7:37 pm
[A]mong my other concerns about the drift of events under the present administration, I consider the abandonment of missile defense in Eastern Europe to be a strategic blunder and a breach of good faith.
It is certainly not a model of diplomacy when the leaders of Poland and the Czech Republic are informed of such a decision at the last minute in midnight phone calls. It took a long time and lot of political courage in those countries to arrange for our interceptor system in Poland and the radar system in the Czech Republic. Our Polish and Czech friends are entitled to wonder how strategic plans and promises years in the making could be dissolved, just like that – with apparently little, if any, consultation. Seventy years to the day after the Soviets invaded Poland, it was an odd way to mark the occasion.
You hardly have to go back to 1939 to understand why these countries desire – and thought they had – a close and trusting relationship with the United States. Only last year, the Russian Army moved into Georgia, under the orders of a man who regards the collapse of the Soviet Union as the greatest geopolitical disaster of the 20th century. Anybody who has spent much time in that part of the world knows what Vladimir Putin is up to. And those who try placating him, by conceding ground and accommodating his wishes, will get nothing in return but more trouble.
What did the Obama Administration get from Russia for its abandonment of Poland and the Czech Republic, and for its famous “Reset” button? Another deeply flawed election and continued Russian opposition to sanctioning Iran for its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Posted by: Appeasement Czar | October 22, 2009, 9:31 am 9:31 am