Poland says Obama team not focused on missile shield
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said on Wednesday the Obama administration had not thought yet about whether to go ahead with a U.S. missile defence shield that would be based partly in Poland.
Sikorski met U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington and said afterward he did not know whether the missile plan, opposed by Russia, would go ahead.
"My genuine impression is that they have not thought about this yet. They really have not decided," he told Reuters after a speech at the Council of Foreign Relations. "They do have other big, several trillion dollar priorities."
President Barack Obama, who took over from George W. Bush five weeks ago, has inherited wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a recession and a financial crisis.
"We think it is only natural that a new administration take stock of all kinds of programs, including this one," said Sikorski, referring to reviews of key foreign policy issues being done by Obama's team.
The Obama administration has signalled it may slow plans to deploy elements of a missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic as part of a drive to improve frosty ties with Russia, whose cooperation Washington needs in confronting Iran's nuclear ambitions.
The Bush administration had pushed hard for the missile defence system, saying it would protect the United States and its allies from attacks by states such as Iran.
U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates met his Polish counterpart during a meeting of NATO defence ministers in Krakow last week and told him the United States needed more time to review the project.
Russia regards the shield as a threat to its national security and is pressing Obama to give ground on the defence plan in exchange for Moscow helping to supply the U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan.
Poland has troops in Afghanistan and Sikorski said 2009 was a crucial year for turning around the situation there.
"I believe we should lower our expectations in Afghanistan and increase our resources. The gap between our ambitions and resources has been too broad recently," he told the council, without indicating whether Poland would offer more troops.
Last week, Obama approved the deployment of an additional 17,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan and Gates has called on European and other allies for more help.
Sikorski said Obama had restored America's "moral" standing in the world and would put strong pressure on Europeans to contribute more troops to Afghanistan.
"I expect him to say ... 'I am prepared to give you a bigger share of global leadership if you will give me resources to fix the war that you joined willingly and unanimously,'" Sikorski said.
"The Europeans will have a harder nut to crack because we will have to think how we can come up to the challenge."
(Editing by John O'Callaghan)