Europe

NATO, Polish leaders to break ground for defense site

Associated Press
Published | Updated

U.S. and Polish officials symbolically break the ground for a construction of the U.S.-led missile defense site that is to be operational in 2018 and defend Europe and the U.S. from missile attacks from outside the Euro-Atlantic area, in Redzikowo, northern Poland, Friday May 13, 2016. (AP Photo/Michal Fludra) (The Associated Press)

Poland's President Andrzej Duda, second right, signs shovels that were used to symbolically break the ground for a construction of the U.S.-led missile defense site that is to be operational in 2018 and defend Europe and the U.S. from missile attacks from outside the Euro-Atlantic area, in Redzikowo, northern Poland, on Friday, May 13, 2016. (AP Photo/Michal Fludra) (The Associated Press)

U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense, Robert O. Work, left, Poland's Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz, center, and Poland's Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski, have a friendly chat during an open air ceremony of breaking the ground for a construction of the U.S.-led missile defense site that is to be operational in 2018 and defend Europe and the U.S. from missile attacks from outside the Euro-Atlantic area, in Redzikowo, northern Poland, on Friday, May 13, 2016. (AP Photo/Michal Fludra) (The Associated Press)

Poland's foreign minister says the nation's security will be significantly changed by a U.S. missile defense system which is being set up in the country's north.

Witold Waszczykowski and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will be among officials who will break the ground Friday for an interceptor site at a former Polish Airforce base in Redzikowo.

Poland has been seeking NATO and U.S. troops' presence on its territory and in the region because of increased activity by Russia and Waszczykowski helped negotiate part of the deal with Washington.

NATO says the site is part of a larger system to protect Europe and the U.S. from ballistic missile threats from the Middle East, once it is completed in 2018.

The system has angered Russians who believe it is directed against them.