WARSAW - Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk says his country is ready to take part in a reconfigured missile defense plan unveiled in Washington last month.

Mr. Tusk spoke Wednesday in Warsaw, at a joint news conference with visiting U.S. Vice President Joe Biden. The Polish leader said his government finds the new U.S. missile shield plan “interesting and important.”

The reconfigured U.S. plan would put the U.S. Navy’s “Standard Missile-3″ anti-ballistic missile system in Poland.  

President Barack Obama last month scrapped an earlier missile defense plan for Europe proposed by former President George W. Bush, after more than a year of vocal opposition from Russia.  

Wednesday, Vice President Biden said the U.S. commitment to Poland is unwavering. He praised Poland for stepping up to host the new missile plan, calling it “a better way” to defend against emerging missile threats.

Under the new plan, U.S. defense officials say interceptor missiles — aimed at countering Iranian missiles — would also be deployed aboard U.S. Navy ships in the North Sea and the Mediterranean.

Earlier Wednesday, Vice President Biden laid a wreath at the monument to victims of the the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto uprising against World War Two Nazi occupation forces. He also met leaders of Warsaw’s Jewish community and was meeting with Polish President Lech Kaczynski.

Biden travels next to Romania and then to the Czech Republic Friday.

Source:  VOA News