Poland placing US patriot missiles amid stand-off with Russia

(Vatican Radio) Poland has announced a record multi-billion dollar deal to buy U.S. Patriot surface-to-air missiles, amid rising East-West tensions with Russia. The move follows reports that Russia deployed missiles just across the border in its enclave of Kaliningrad as part of a wider East-West standoff over Russian intervention in Ukraine.   

Poland President Bronislaw Komorowski says in a statement that Poland will start talks with the United States to finalise a missile deal worth $7 billion, the largest in Polish history. 

The Patriot is an advanced missile system intended to defend against aircraft, cruise and ballistic missiles. 

Komorowski's announcement came after last month the U.S. Army Europe already deployed a Patriot missile defence battery near Poland's capital Warsaw as part of joint exercises, explained American Luitenant Conel Lisa Bartel. 

"We're conducting a combined exercise with the Polish air defense forces. We had a long strong standing relationship and with the air defense forces. And we are reinvigorating that relationship," Bartel said at the time.

MISSILE SYSTEMS

"We are going to conducting some combined exercises with Poles and also sharing some experience between our two missile systems." 

The deployment of Patriot missiles in Poland follows reports that Russia has stationed missiles in its enclave of Kaliningrad, which borders Poland as well as the Baltics. 

Listen to this report by Stefan Bos

Poland and other neighboring countries also claim regional security has worsened because of the conflict in Ukraine. 

Moscow has denied Western allegations that it supports pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine with weapons and troops after it already annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula  

ARMY COOPERATION

The Polish Defence Minister Tomasz Siemoniak says his nation believes that as a former Soviet satellite state it must modernize its army cooperation and cooperate with the United States. 

"Poland has bad experiences with foreign soldiers in the past," he explained. 

"Today it seeks friends in American soldiers and wishes their presence in Poland." 

It is part of Poland's plans to spend $35 billion to modernise its military over the next eight years.

Poland, which is part of the NATO military alliance since 1999, does not have its own system to protect against ballistic missiles. The country also wants to buy helicopters, submarines and armoured personnel carriers.