Polish President Donald Tusk and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Signing the deal with Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hailed it as a breakthrough in international cooperation but stressed the missiles would only be used for defense.
"It will help both the (NATO) alliance and Poland and the United States respond to the coming threats," Rice said after the signing. "Missile defense, of course, is aimed at no one. It is in our defense that we do this."
Moscow says the missile-defense system is aimed at blunting Russia's nuclear deterrent. It has warned the deal could open Poland up to attack.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, whose country has been pushing for the missile-defense system to be placed in Poland, said it strengthens the two countries' strategic partnership and will bring long term benefits to their security.
The agreement will put a ground-based ballistic missile defense interceptor facility with 10 interceptor missiles in Poland close to the Russian border, according to the declaration. The United States will begin deploying the Patriot air and missile defense system next year, with a garrison to support it by 2012. 
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The countries will negotiate a separate agreement for the status of U.S. forces in Poland to support the system, the declaration says. The United States will also provide training to Poland and provide real-time information about missiles tracked by the radar, which will be located in the Czech Republic.
Tusk said the Patriot battery and U.S. installation are a "practical and measurable element of this breakthrough" agreement.
"Missile defenses, including an interceptor base in Poland, provide a necessary and critical capability that can be used to defend both nations and other NATO allies from long-range missile threats" launched from the Middle East, the declaration says.
The system will be linked to other missile defense facilities in Europe and the United States, the declaration says.
Without referring to Russia, the declaration notes that the U.S.-Poland relationship is governed by the NATO charter "which provides that an armed attack against one NATO country shall be considered an armed attack against them all."
The United States will help Poland modernize its armed forces as part of the deal, thus making Poland a stronger NATO partner. The two countries also agreed to deepen cooperation on political-military issues, information-sharing and defense technology research and development.
Polish President Lech Kaczynski said the deal is strategically necessary for Poland and for Europe.
While it pushed for the system, Poland had made some demands of the United States and that had stalled negotiations in recent months. The pace of the talks accelerated, however, after Russia invaded Georgia nearly two weeks ago, and the countries quickly ironed out their differences
"The negotiations have sometimes been tough but they have never been unfriendly," said Rice. "They have sometimes been difficult but they have always been purposeful."
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