Poland is in no rush to decide on hosting a US anti-missile base before American elections as a change of guard at the White House could scuttle the project, Poland's foreign minister said on Saturday.
Warsaw has been in talks with Washington on plans to host ground-based interceptor missiles in Poland, part of a project to protect Europe against attacks from what the US calls "rogue states" such as Iran and North Korea.
But negotiations have stalled since Donald Tusk took over as Poland's prime minister after his centre-right party took power last November. "We're studying the platforms of all the most serious (US presidential) candidates on this issue," Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told Gazeta Wyborcza daily in an interview.
"The worst-case scenario would be one in which Poland agrees to the shield, shoulders the political costs and then the base isn't built because the government in the US has changed," Sikorski added. The United States is due to hold its presidential election in November. So far the shield has not turned into a major issue in the campaign.
Poland's larger neighbour Russia has opposed the project to place interceptors in Poland and a radar facility in the neighbouring Czech Republic, which it sees as a threat to its security. Warsaw-Moscow relations, never easy, reached rock bottom under the previous conservative government, and Poland's eagerness to host the shield was one of the points of contention. The anti-missile base project is also unpopular among Polish citizens.
Tusk replaced former prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski who alongside his twin brother Lech was a strong supporter of the missile-defence project, seeing it as a guarantee of a deeper security alliance with the United States. Tusk and Sikorski have said Poland would have to see clear security benefits before agreeing to host the facility. Tusk and his Defence Minister Bogdan Klich are expected to visit Washington early this year to discuss the issue.