US President Donald Trump has accepted the invitation of Polish President Andrzej Duda to visit his country on July 6 on the eve of the G20 summit in Germany, Poland’s Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski announced.
The US president will arrive in Poland late in the evening of July 5 and meet the next day with his Polish counterpart and take part in the Three Seas Initiative meeting, Niezalezna quotes Waszczykowski as saying.
The White House says the trip will be aimed at reaffirming America’s “steadfast commitment to one of our closest European allies.” Besides, Trump will also emphasize his commitment to strengthening NATO’s “collective defense,” AP reports.
The Polish side has stressed that the Trump-Duda negotiations will also touch upon Russia’s aggression in the Donbas. “We will go outside the framework of our region, Central Europe, and address the problem of crisis resolution and the Russian-Ukrainian war,” the Polish foreign minister said.
Ukraine’s diplomatic representation in Poland told The Day that “it is too early to comment on Trump’s visit. The Polish side has just begun to draw up the program and the topics of this visit.” Besides, the interviewee said the embassy was arranging that Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko attend the Three Seas Initiative meeting.
The news of the US president’s visit to Warsaw has triggered positive comments by Polish politicians.
In particular, Poland’s Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz said that the upcoming visit “is an enormous event showing how much Poland’s place in geopolitics and world politics has changed” since his party, Law and Justice, took power in 2015.” Krzysztof Szczerski, President Duda’s chief of staff, said Polish officials had worked for “many months” to persuade Trump to visit, AP reports.
“IT IS IMPORTANT FOR POLAND TO REAFFIRM THE PRESENCE OF NATO TROOPS IN THE COUNTRY”
Andrzej SZEPTYCKI, analyst, Institute of International Relations, Warsaw University:
“First of all, it is important for Poland to reaffirm the presence of NATO troops in the country. Following in the American direction is the main desire of Poland.
“The main international problems and crises are always discussed during this kind of meetings. The same is likely to occur during Trump’s visit to Poland.
“We know that the negotiations on the situation in eastern Ukraine are now held in the so-called Normandy or Minsk format, but both the US and Poland are absent within the framework of this format. So it is possible that Mr. Waszczykowski wants to suggest to the US side that this format be reset and include Poland and the US.”
“IS WARSAW PREPARED TO PURSUE THE ‘NOTHING ABOUT US WITHOUT US’ POLICY ON UKRAINE?”
Kateryna ZAREMBO, deputy director, Institute of World Politics:
“Undoubtedly, Poland is celebrating a victory in connection with the announced visit of Trump to Warsaw. Like most of the European states, Poland traditionally considers the US its strategic partner, and the visit is the reaffirmation of this, all the more so against the backdrop of cooler relations between Warsaw and Brussels. Besides, official Warsaw is trying to ‘kill two birds with one stone’ and announce its involvement in the resolution of the Ukrainian-Russian conflict – as is known, Poland insists on being included into the ‘Normandy format.’
“As it was announced, Trump will take part in the summit of the Three Seas Initiative, the integration initiative Poland launched past year for the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The first summit of this initiative was held past year in Dubrovnik. Ukraine was invited, but the Ukrainian leadership chose not to participate (which some are saying it regretted later). This year the summit will take place in Poland, but, in spite of Duda’s promise past year that the Three Seas Initiative is open to Ukraine, this country was not invited, as far as I know.
“This raises the question of whether the Polish ruling elites are prepared to pursue the policy they once declared as their own lodestar – ‘Nothing about us without us’ – on Ukraine. It would be logical and much in the spirit of Ukrainian-Polish partnership if Poroshenko were invited to the Three Seas Initiative summit in Wroclaw, where he could also meet Trump personally (for the first time!). After all, this rendezvous could be added to the ‘treasure chest’ of the concrete and practical achievements of the Three Seas Initiative which was in fact conceived as a security project.”
