Poland and the United States signed on Saturday an agreement on the establishment of a missile shield, despite the objections from Russia.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton witnessed the signing of the document, which allows both countries to station U.S. missile interceptors on Polish territory to defend the country against possible threats from Iran or other parts of the world.

The U.S. official later attended a conference on the development of democracy and civil liberties, a recurring theme of his four-day visit to Ukraine, Poland, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia.

President Barack Obama has canceled last year a draft of the Bush Administration planned to deploy a larger missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic. It gave preference to smaller missile interceptors based at sea and on land.

“The U.S. is deeply committed to security and the sovereignty of Poland,” Clinton told reporters at a joint press conference with his Polish counterpart Radoslaw Sikorski.

“Today, by signing an amendment to the agreement on ballistic missile defense, we are strengthening that commitment.”

THE DEFENSE SYSTEM

If Poland was angered last year to see Obama about the Bush project, Sikorski said that his country preferred the new formula of fact.

“When Obama announced the new system configuration, we said we preferred this new arrangement, but I think we did not believed you,” he said. “I hope that now that we signed the schedule, we believe you. ”

Hillary Clinton has sought to contain the Russian objections to the project, which Moscow deems threatening to its own nuclear deterrent.

“This is a purely defensive system, which is not directed against Russia. It is a defensive system to protect our friends and allies and our deployed forces,” she said. The real threats come from the development of missiles to short and medium range at an accelerated rate in Iran. ”

Clinton began the day by laying a wreath at a memorial to victims of the plane crash that killed in April 10 Russia 96 people including President Lech Kaczynski, the main military leaders and the Polish central bank governor country.

This group was to mark the 70th anniversary of the massacre of thousands of Polish officers by Soviet forces in Katyn when his Tupolev crashed in fog near Smolensk in western Russia.

DISCOURSE ON THE FREEDOM VIOLATIONS

The second round of the Polish presidential election, a result of the death of Lech Kaczynski Sunday. The ballot counters with his twin brother, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the president Acting Bronislaw Komoroswki.

Clinton has not taken sides in the race and did not meet Komorowski. “Whichever candidate the U.S. will remain friends and partners,” she said.

As part of the meeting of the Community of Democracies, an intergovernmental body that promotes democratic principles and civil society, Hillary Clinton, however, that groups campaigning for democracy and civil liberties were taken in a “steel vise .

She cited many countries, Iran and North Korea to Cuba and Zimbabwe, where NGOs are banned, harassed or better clamped.

This repression is an ideology forged in the twentieth century, particularly by communist regimes, but today is often motivated by a desire for power, pure and simple, “she said.

“For over 60 years, Winston Churchill came to the United States warned the democracies of the world that Iron Curtain descended on Europe,” said Clinton. “Today, fortunately, (…) the iron curtain fell.

“But we must remain vigilant against the vise of steel in which governments override slowly across the world, civil society and the human spirit,” she added.

Clinton has proposed that the Community of Democracies creates an independent oversight body of the repression of NGOs, and take other measures to defend its values. She also announced the creation of a protection fund for groups harassed.