Poland wants a 1997 deal on NATO-Russia ties to be scrapped to let the alliance install permanent military bases in Polish soil, something that Moscow insists the agreement rules out.
Poland’s new right-wing Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski insisted in an interview published Wednesday that the deal must go because it causes “inequality” between new and older NATO members.
The 1997 document stipulates that older NATO members “have no intention, no plan and no reason to deploy nuclear weapons on the territory of new members” like ex-communist Poland.
Russia has long insisted this provision also rules out permanent bases and troop deployments.
“NATO cannot have two levels of security, namely one for Western Europe with US troops, with military bases and defense installations and another for Poland, without these elements”.
“Poland is Russia’s neighbor and this is why we’re speaking up”.