NATO has boosted its presence in Central Europe by setting up a missile defence base in northern Poland, a move that has provoked Russia into vowing to take countermeasures.
The inauguration of the new base in the town of Redzikowo near the Baltic coast was held on Wednesday, November 13th, with Polish Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz saying the base means that American and allied troops will have an “eternal presence” in Poland.
The base is part of a broader NATO missile shield, Aegis Ashore, which the alliance says can intercept short- to intermediate-range ballistic missiles. Other key shield elements include a site in Romania, U.S. naval destroyers based in the Spanish port of Rota, and an early-warning radar in Kürecik, Turkey.
The development of the new Polish base was agreed upon during former U.S. President George W. Bush’s tenure, and construction began in 2016.
Though the facility was originally meant to be part of a European defence shield that would protect the continent from potential missile attacks by Iran, Polish officials made no secret of the fact that they are more worried about Russia, which invaded Ukraine almost three years ago.
“The whole world will see clearly that this is not Russia’s sphere of interest anymore,” Polish President Andrzej Duda said at the ceremony in Redzikowo.
“The Polish and American nations stand shoulder to shoulder in the vanguard of defence against, in the past Soviet, and currently Russian imperialism and aggression,” said commander of the United States Naval Forces Europe-Africa, Stuart B. Munsch.
Poland is one of the United States’ closest allies in Europe, which it sees as a guarantor of its security. The Central European state has had historically bad ties with neighbouring Germany and Russia, and it sees Moscow as a threat to its security. Poland is the NATO member that spends the most on defence—more than 4% of its GDP. Last year, the first permanent American military garrison in Poland was opened.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia had long known that American claims about wanting to prepare for an Iranian attack “are in fact a lie,” and “that all these plans were drawn up from the very beginning as an attempt to militarily contain our potential.”
Moscow has warned NATO countless times in recent years that the expansion of the military alliance into Central and Eastern Europe, close to Russia’s borders, are “red lines” that Moscow would counter.
