High level official visit to the United States likely to focus on military issues

Jerzy Szmajdzinski, the Defense Minister yesterday announced that he received a letter from the US Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, with proposals on military cooperation. The Americans want to increase coordination between armies, exchange experience in carrying out army reforms and joint exercises. The Defense Minister, who will begin his visit to the United States tomorrow with President Aleksander Kwasniewski, said that official talks will concern Poland's role in building the antiballistic missile system as well as technical and scientific cooperation and defense policies. Szmajdzinski emphasized that these proposals have no influence on the multipurpose plane tender for the Polish military. (Rzeczpospolita, p. A4) A.K.