By Gabriela Baczynska
WARSAW, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Poland wants NATO to revamp its
security planning in the face of a more assertive Russia after
Moscow's brief war with Georgia last summer and its spat last
month with Ukraine over gas supplies, officials say.
At issue is the alliance's contingency planning, the defence
strategies crafted for each NATO member which were last updated,
partially, in the 1990s.
Polish officials stop short of saying Russia should be named
explicitly as a threat to the 26-nation alliance, but Moscow's
actions against ex-Soviet republics Georgia and Ukraine have
increased Warsaw's security concerns.
"We are interested in updating the contingency planning to
adjust it to current reality in terms of possible threats and
appropriate answers to them," Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej
Kremer told Reuters on Monday.
Kremer said this should not be seen as a move against
Russia, noting other threats such as terrorist attacks were also
not included in current contingency planning.
"The contingency plans don't have any well-defined threat
for now. In particular, Russia's new aggressive attitude is not
defined," said Witold Waszczykowski, deputy head of Poland's
National Security Bureau.
Poland will host NATO defence ministers in its southern city
of Krakow on Feb. 19-20. They are expected to focus on reform of
the alliance and its mission in Afghanistan.
Polish Defence Minister Bogdan Klich said last week updating
contingency planning would be high on Warsaw's agenda.
Moscow and Tbilisi fought a brief war in August over
Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia region. Top-level ties between
Russia and NATO were frozen but officials have said they could
be resumed this month.
MISSILE SHIELD
Roman Kuzniar, a Polish military expert, said: "Contingency
plans should reflect the growth in the danger from Russia ...
Moscow's attitude to the region has changed and even if it is
not a direct military threat to Poland's security now,
contingency plans should be updated regularly anyway."
Warsaw also favours mention in any updated document U.S.
plans to deploy parts of a global missile shield in Poland and
the Czech Republic, Kremer said, a project endorsed by NATO.
Moscow opposes the shield plan, although a Russian news
agency reported last week that the Kremlin would halt a
retaliatory move to install missiles in its Kaliningrad enclave
next to Poland in an apparent goodwill gesture to the new U.S.
administration of President Barack Obama.
The missile shield was a flagship defence policy under
former U.S. President George W. Bush. Obama's nominee for the
top policy job in the Pentagon, Michele Flournoy, has said the
project would be reviewed.
Senator Carl Levin, who chairs the U.S. Senate's armed
services committee, said last month he believed Obama's
administration was serious about exploring cooperation with
Russia on missile defence.
NATO spokeswoman Carmen Romero said: "NATO has a
sophisticated and flexible defence planning capability that
plans for any contingency. We don't go into details, but we have
a very robust defence planning system and there should be no
doubt that NATO can carry out all its core tasks in an efficient
way."
(Editing by Gareth Jones and Janet Lawrence)
