Warsaw - Czech President Vaclav Klaus began a three-day
official visit to Poland Tuesday, including talks with his Polish
counterpart Lech Kaczynski on the controversial US plan to install a
missile defence shield in their neighbouring countries.
'Poland and the Czech Republic are very serious in their approach
in talks with the US,' Klaus told reporters at a joint press briefing
with Kaczynski.
In June, the Czech Republic agreed to a US proposal to station
anti-missile radar sites on its territory. However, Poland - where
the US plans to install ten anti-ballistic missile silos - has yet to
give a definitive answer.
Next week Kaczynski is due to hold talks on the controversial plan
in Washington.
Both leaders said their countries were cooperating closely with
information exchange on the US missile defence plan.
Despite assurances from the US that the missile shield is designed
only to ward off terror attacks from so-called rogue states such as
Iran and South Korea, Russia vehemently opposes the project.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has used Cold War-era rhetoric
threatening his country will have to point its missiles at European
targets should the US push ahead with the missile shield plan in
Central Europe.
Both Poland and the Czech Republic are former Soviet satellites
which joined the NATO Western defence alliance in 1999 and the EU in
2004.
Developments following the June European Union summit, focused on
a new constitution for the bloc and energy security, were also on the
leaders' agenda.
Threatening a veto that would halt progress on the adoption of a
blanket EU treaty, Poland struck a high-stakes last-minute deal at
the summit to retain a system of voting advantageous to smaller
states until 2014.
The Czech Republic was the only country among the EU's 27 members
which supported Poland's challenge towards the widely accepted
'double majority' voting system which favours larger member states.
Both Kaczynski and Klaus said this cooperation was evidence of
'excellent' relations between their countries.
Klaus was due to meet Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski later
Tuesday, while on Wednesday and Thursday he and his wife were to be
the guests of the President Lech Kaczynski and First Lady Maria for a
more relaxed visit to the Polish countryside.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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