GENERAL FRANCISZEK GAGOR: (In Polish.) Ladies and gentlemen, it is my true pleasure to welcome my colleague – my close colleague – the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States, Admiral Michael Mullen, together with his wife and his delegation. It is, I would say, a routine type of visit, but this visit is also a tribute to the United States to Poland’s appreciation of our engagement in crisis response operations.
I would like to emphasize that the Polish-American military relations have lasted for quite some time. They started with General Kosciusko and Pulaski in the 18th century. Later, we were together fighting soldier-to-soldier during the great wars, World War I and World War II. And after the changes after 1989, our military cooperation has steadily grown since then. The cooperation is taking place virtually at all levels – at the strategic, operational and tactical level – but also across all the services – the land forces, the navy, the air force – and also, our special operations forces, our youngest armed service that we have in the Polish military.
The cooperation is broad. Let me just mention a few of them. One is operational cooperation, both under allied supervision as well as within the coalition framework. We had Operation Iraqi Freedom and now, we have the ISAF operation in Afghanistan. The cooperation is especially fruitful and intense in military education and training. Over the last 20 years, we have trained, in the United States, more than 3,500 Polish soldiers. And if we count, also, the mentoring teams and mobile training teams that come to Poland, we come up with a count of approximately 10,000 Polish troops that were trained and mentored by the U.S. military.
This was particularly important during our preparatory phase to NATO accession, when we attained a larger level of interoperability. So let me thank you here for the American support in this respect. We also cooperate in the broad field of defense transformation of the Polish armed forces. Let me mention here the F-16 program, the frigates – the Oliver Hazard Perry frigates – the broad training of Polish NCOs, who have become, increasingly, an important backbone of the Polish military. And there’s many more areas where we do cooperate, but let me here thank simply Admiral Mike Mullen, for all your support that you are giving to us.
And at the end, I would like to express my hope that all these activities will further deepen our cooperation and make it even more dynamic in the years to come. Thank you for your attention. And Mike, could you take the floor?
ADMIRAL MICHAEL MULLEN: Thank you, General Gagor. And first of all, I’d just like to say what a thrill it is for me to be here in Poland. This is my first visit, and I’m here with my wife Deborah, and would really just like to express my appreciation to all of the Polish people for their friendship and support, and in particular, to General Gagor and his wife, Lucy, for their hospitality and friendship.
While General Gagor described the visit as routine – and it is – it is also a visit of great importance to the American military as a representation of the strength of the relationship, the commitment of the relationship and the importance of the relationship, both bilaterally between the United States and Poland as well as our relationship in NATO.
This is a vital relationship that, from my perspective, must continue. It goes back, as General Gagor said, for centuries. And at the same time, we’ve fought together from Monte Cassino until recently. And the Polish military has provided great capability and great results in Iraq in OIF and does so today in Afghanistan, under the auspices of ISAF – that very important commitment. And so while you say, Frank, that you’ve learned a great deal from the Americans, we’ve also learned a great deal from your great military, and we look forward to continuing that in the future.
I think no place is our partnership better represented than your national commitment, your NATO commitment to Ghazni, and I’m always reminded, when I’m in front of audiences of the young people who make this possible – those who sacrifice, and in cases, have sacrificed everything, given their lives to support what we share in common and what we believe in. And certainly, our partnership is a critical part of that.
The United States is very committed to this partnership, to its future, to the modernization of the Polish military. And we’ve had good initial discussions today, and throughout the day those discussions will continue, to do exactly what General Gagor spoke of, which is to deepen the relationship. So again, thank you for your warm welcome, thank you for your hospitality, but most importantly thank you for the partnership that is so strong, and we look forward to it becoming even stronger in the future. And I’d be happy to take your questions.
MR. : There’s time for questions.
Q: (Inaudible, off mike) – what is the solution to defend Europe and the United States from Iran if you don’t go for the site in Poland? (Inaudible) – missiles to defend Europe from Iran, instead of a site in Poland, can those ships defend the United States from Europe? And rather in Europe, why don’t we be discouraging the Russians, because they try to occupy – (inaudible) – NATO assets.
Why would we not go forward with that? And my final question is, there was a study that U.S. government did last year which showed that cost comparison between – (inaudible) – protection of Europe against ground interceptor protection, and the cost is absolutely considerable – three, four times more for the Navy to do it than – (inaudible). (In Polish.)
ADM. MULLEN: The whole issue of missile defense is one that, just based on your questions alone, I identify the complexities of this issue. The focus, from the United States perspective, is on the threat from Iran. And in the missile defense world, there are multiple parts of a typical missile defense system, and you’ve raised the potential naval component, land-based component, and obviously, the issues that are associated with, how do we see this resolving itself and the cost issue, which isn’t insignificant.
These are – the United States is undergoing its own review right now, under President Obama. That’s due to be done later this year. And so the specifics of that review, obviously, won’t be discussed until we complete it later on. As I said earlier, in my opening remarks, more than anything else, the United States is committed to the relationship with Poland and supporting modernization of the Polish military. And how missile defense fits in all that and what the specifics will be, in terms of the overall position of the United States, will be very much tied to the results of the current review.
Q: (In Polish.) I’m from the Polish national television. I have a question both to the admiral and to the general. I would like to ask about missile defense. Gentlemen, do you foresee to discuss today, later in the day, the issues of the SOFA agreement, because there’s word being spread that the SOFA agreement is not going forward as it should, there’s even a risk that it might not be signed this year, and it is linked, also, to the deployment of a Patriot battery to Poland? And a specific question to you, Admiral: Can you tell us whether you have discussed missile defense in Moscow, and can you apprise us of your discussions? Thank you.
ADM. MULLEN: Do you want to start?
GEN. GAGOR: Yeah, the first part.
ADM. MULLEN: Go ahead.
GEN. GAGOR: (In Polish.) Let me start to answer the question concerning the SOFA agreement. We do not foresee to discuss it during our discussions today because there is a special team, comprised of undersecretaries, both from the ministry of defense, as well as the ministry of foreign affairs, on both sides – the Polish and the U.S. sides. Those are expert teams that are related to legal and political issues. Therefore, they are to proceed with this issue. Thank you.
ADM. MULLEN: The only thing I would add with respect to the SOFA agreement is that they’re very important ongoing negotiations. As you indicated in your question, they’re clearly linked, as Secretary Gates said when he was here recently, to the deployment of the first Patriot battery, which would be a training-and-exercise kind of deployment. And we think they’re important. And I’m hopeful that the teams General Gagor speaks of are able to move forward. And actually, I’m not just hopeful, but optimistic that they can move forward. But the linkage is clearly there.
With respect to your question on my recent visit to Moscow, I met with my counterpart there, General Makarov, and we had broad discussions across many issues. We talked briefly about missile defense, but we did not talk substantively about missile defense. This is all in preparation for the upcoming summit, where President Obama goes to Moscow next week to meet with President Medvedev.
MR. : Next question Mr. Ogossi (ph), please.
Q: Admiral, is the United States committed to defending Europe from missiles from Iran one way or the other – in some system or other? And do you have a message today for your interlocutors or for the general public, here in Poland or in the region, who may be concerned about the resumption of U.S. military relations with Russia so relatively soon after the Georgia invasion?
ADM. MULLEN: Clearly, the United States is both concerned about the growing missile capabilities and the destabilizing aspect of those capabilities that are coming out of Iran, and is committed to looking for solutions which best resolve and protect against that threat. And it is clearly the strategic intent of Iran to continue to develop those missiles. They are now on the edge of being able to project that capability to Europe, and the longer-term expectation right now, from the United States perspective, is that eventually, that capability will also be projected as far away as the United States
So working with our partners in this regard is very important. I think with respect to our relations with Russia, and specifically coming off of the Russian invasion of Georgia last summer, the United States is clearly committed to renewing a relationship with Russia. The ability to – I think it’s important that we have a dialogue and a relationship. There are areas of common interest that we agree we need to work on – Afghanistan – logistic support to the Afghanistan conflict, the issue of counterterrorism, the issue of Iran. And there are other issues that we also know that we disagree on that we also need to work on.
So I think the forum is important. That was the purpose of my visit and General Makarov announced, while I was there, that we would have a renewed military-to-military agreement that he and I would sign next week at the summit that is most important from the standpoint of having a forum to discuss both those things we agree on and those things that we disagree on. And I think it’s important for the relationship between the United States and Russia as well as the relationship between the United States and Europe.
GEN. GAGOR: (In Polish.)
(Question delivered via translator.)
Q: The question comes from the Polish Radio, Radio Zet, and the question is addressed to both the gentlemen, and it pertains to the Patriot missiles. The first part of the question is, can we say, can we anticipate when the deployment of the first battery can take place? And even if it’s not possible to determine the exact time right now as it is dependent on the agreement, can you tell us a time frame that will be required after the particular signing of the SOFA agreements.
What time interval is required to deploy this battery? And the second part of the question pertains to the type of the battery. You mentioned that it would be a training and exercise battery. Is there a U.S. intent to deploy a other battery than a training or exercise battery, meaning an operational battery, in the future?
ADM. MULLEN: With respect to the linkage between the SOFA agreement and the – the potential SOFA agreement – and the deployment which is very direct. It would be weeks to months after the completion of a agreement that we would be able to deploy the first Patriot battery – and again, it would be from a training and exercise perspective.
And I spoke earlier of the commitment to the modernization of the Polish military and certainly this air defense capability is a step in that direction. There are many complex issues to be worked out in the long term about what would follow the initial deployment and we are in discussions about that routinely and again, many of those issues are not resolved yet.
But the commitment of the United States to the modernization of the Polish military is one that is very, very solid.
GEN. GAGOR: (In Polish.)
MR. : (In Polish.)
GEN GAGOR: Let me add for myself a few words. As we mentioned, the discussions are going on at a political level at the negotiations. However, let me confirm that the Polish military is anxious expecting the battery to be deployed to Poland eventually and we also plan to modernize our air defense system in Poland. Therefore we believe that the battery in Poland will become a spin wheel or an engine that will accelerate this modernization effort and I believe that sooner than later this battery will come to Poland.
MR. : Thank you.