WikiLeaks 'Remove Illusions' In U.S. Relations, Polish PM Says

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk (file photo)

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk says U.S. diplomatic cables revealed by the WikiLeaks website have changed the way Warsaw perceives its relationship with Washington.

"It's a problem of losing illusions over the character of relations between different states, including allies as close as the United States and Poland," Tusk told reporters in Warsaw.

"So if something concerns me, it's the light that was shed by these leaks on the character of relations between the United States and Poland and other allies."

He said that the cables shed light on the U.S.-Polish negotiations to receive operational U.S. Patriot missiles on its soil.

In May 2009, Polish and U.S. officials unveiled a first training unit for U.S. surface-to-air Patriot-type missiles to be stationed on Polish soil, a move that vexed Russia.

Poland also believed Washington would install a large garrison of U.S. troops to service the missiles, but U.S. cables revealed by WikiLeaks showed Washington had no intention of doing so.

In the wake of the new WikiLeaks revelation, Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski is traveling to Washington for a meeting at the White House on December 8.

compiled from agency reports