BMD Focus: Will Lithuania host BMD base?

WASHINGTON, June 18 (UPI) -- Will the Bush administration try to build its proposed BMD base against the Iranian threat in Lithuania rather than Poland?

U.S. officials admitted Tuesday they were holding what one described as "general conversations" with Lithuania, a former Soviet republic from 1940 to 1989 and now a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, about moving a proposed base for anti-ballistic missile interceptors there from Poland.

The comments came as the U.S. officials denied earlier reports claiming that a senior Polish official had announced U.S. negotiations with Lithuania on the issue had already commenced.

Witold Waszczykowski, the chief Polish government negotiator with the U.S. government on the base issue, had been reported as saying Washington had already initiated a new round of talks with neighboring Lithuania about moving the proposed ballistic missile defense base there.

The Voice of America Tuesday cited State Department spokesman Tom Casey as acknowledging talks with Lithuania on the issue had started. But he said they were so far only "general conversations." Casey claimed agreement with the Polish government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk on building the proposed base was still "very close," the VOA said.

The VOA also quoted Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell as saying the Poles still appeared to want an agreement, but that the success of the negotiations was by no means guaranteed.

"I think they want an agreement, but it's a question of what price," Morrell said. "And that's what a negotiation is all about, and that's what we're in the midst of right now."

Morrell also said when U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates held talks with Polish Defense Minister Bogdan Klich in Brussels last week, Gates concluded the Poles still wanted a deal. However, Morrell too held open the possibility that the base, to house 10 Ground-based Mid-course Interceptors to guard against any possible intercontinental ballistic missile attack from Iran or any other "rogue state," could be built in Lithuania or some other European country.

"We are hopeful that we can soon reach a deal with the Poles, but we have always said that there are other options available to us," Morrell said, according to the VOA report. "There are several other European nations that could host the interceptors, and Lithuania is one of them. That said, we have not entered into negotiations with any other country, and hope that that does not become necessary."

"We want to get a deal done," said Morrell. "We believe it is imperative, given the security threat that we believe is looming for Europe, based upon the Iranian missile threat, that we move on this as soon as possible. And that is why we continue to aggressively pursue talks with the Poles. But that is also why we do not close the door on perhaps having to pursue a backup option."

Some U.S. officials privately suspect that Tusk wants to "run out the clock" on the BMD negotiations until the next U.S. president is installed in January.

Tusk has made no secret, since winning Poland's general election late last year, that his foreign policy priority would be to improve Poland's relations with Russia to the east. He lacks the commitment to building the BMD base for the ABMs that his predecessor, pro-American Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, shared.

However, Tusk has not dared to openly defy the Bush administration, which remains determined to build the BMD base.

Polish Defense Minister Klich has even insisted that the United States should give Poland the same exceptionally high levels of foreign and military aid -- well in excess of $1 billion a year -- that it gives to Egypt. And Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski even said in May his government would not interfere if the United States found another nation to host the BMD base.