2024-11-11 12:54 update: 2024-11-12, 15:01
Photo PAP/Piotr Nowak
The head of the National Security Bureau (BBN) has announced that the anti-missile base, part of NATO defence system, will be officially inaugurated in Redzikowo, a village off the Polish Baltic Sea coast, on November 13.
"It seems that Independence Day is a good moment to make this announcement," Jacek Siewiera told a Polsat News private television programme on Monday.
"Today, straight after the state celebrations, the president is leaving for Azerbaijan (to take part in a COP29 conference - PAP), but on his way back he will land in Gdansk, from where he will go directly to the official opening ceremony of the Aegis anti-missile base in Redzikowo. It will take place on Wednesday," he said.
Siewiera added that the base in Redzikowo was a US Navy base under NATO command, EUCOM, namely the command of the US forces in Europe.
The BBN head also said that, being an American base, its goal is to carry out transatlantic defence tasks.
The operational readiness of the anti-missile base in Redzikowo was declared in the conclusions of the July 9-11 NATO summit in Washington. The facility is to provide protection to the US and European NATO members against short- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles.
The base is an element of the European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA), an American contribution to NATO's integrated system of air and missile defence.
Referring to the planned opening of the base, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defence Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said later on Monday that the inauguration of the Redzikowo facility was proof of the long-lasting nature of the Polish-US alliance.
"In my opinion, it is necessary to expand the scope of operations of the anti-missile shield, and this is what we are going to talk about with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and our friends from the US," Kosiniak-Kamysz added.
The US twin anti-missile facility in Romania has been operational since 2016. (PAP)
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