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US commits to missile deal with Poland

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-05-22 10:03

WASHINGTON -- The United States will remain its commitment to the deployment of a Patriot missile battery in Poland, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said on Thursday.

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"We're committed to supporting Poland's defense needs, including NATO inter-operability," Kelly told a news briefing. "We remain committed to, specifically to rotating in a battery, a Patriot battery."

Under an agreement signed in 2008 by Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski and then U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the installation of Patriot missiles in Poland will begin this year with the aim of forming a permanent missile base by 2012.

U.S. President Barack Obama said last month that he would move forward with the missile defense plan developed by the previous administration as long as a missile threat from Iran persists. But he said the system must be cost-effective and proven to work.