Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski said Thursday his comments on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) had been taken out of context and Poland remained committed to the alliance.

In a statement to the Polish PAP news agency, Waszczykowski said his words that NATO was not "the alliance of our dreams" had been distorted.

NATO was currently undergoing "a multi-dimensional change process" and he had only tried to turn attention to "objective problems" within the alliance, Waszczykowski said.

"It is a fact that over recent years NATO has changed from the alliance we joined in 1999, and is still searching for feasible structural and operational solutions," he said. "As a NATO member we're part of these changes and I was only pinpointing some aspects of the process which we consider important."

Waszczykowski added that he held similar views on the possible installation of a U.S. anti-missile system in Poland.

"Poland's intention (regarding the U.S. missile shield) is to increase not only the security of the United States and Poland, but also the security of all our European partners and allies," he said.

Earlier, the daily Rzeczpospolita said the Polish Foreign Ministry feared that NATO might not be able to protect Poland in a major conflict.

"NATO, which we joined in 1999, is no longer the alliance of our dreams," the newspaper quoted Waszczykowski as saying at a recent meeting in Warsaw's Business Center Club.

"A Polish-U.S. military-political pact should strengthen bilateral relations and lead to an improvement in Poland's security," he said.

Poland and the United States are set to open negotiations on the possibility of placing a U.S. missile defense site in the country.

Washington wants to deploy interceptor missiles in Poland and a missile defense radar in the Czech Republic as part of a U.S.-built shield against ballistic missiles.

Source: Xinhua