President expects tangible solutions at NATO summit - News - National Security Bureau

03.09.2014

President expects tangible solutions at NATO summit

The upcoming NATO summit should turn security guarantees for Central and Eastern Europe into tangible arrangements and solutions which will strengthen the alliance's eastern flank, President Bronislaw Komorowski said on Wednesday.

The Polish president will take part in a NATO summit in Newport, UK on Thursday and Friday. "All signs indicate that it will be the most important summit," since Poland joined NATO 15 years ago and since the collapse of the Warsaw Pact, Bronislaw Komorowski said.

Therefore it is important that the voice of NATO's eastern members be heard, Komorowski said, reminding that Eastern European presidents had met on several occasions "to build a joint stance for the NATO summit."

"We want the Newport summit to turn the security guarantees for the countries in our region into tangible arrangements, tangible solutions that are important from the point of view of security and defence of the Alliance's eastern flank," the Polish president said, stressing the involvement of US President Barack Obama and his public reiteration of security guarantees for the region.

The solutions could include permanent presence of NATO troops or infrastructure in those countries as well as boosting the readiness of NATO's response forces, according to Bronislaw Komorowski.

The president also underscored the significance of the Multinational Corps North-East based in Poland's north-eastern city Szczecin.

Russia's aggression against Ukraine and the recent activities of Russian troops "must require a definition of new conditions and adaptation of the entire Alliance to them," Polish president said, adding that permanent NATO presence in Eastern European countries, including Poland, could be an element of deterrence and a demonstration of NATO's unity.

NATO and the EU should support Ukraine through sanctions against Russia but also through technical and military assistance, according to the president.

Bronislaw Komorowski expects that the discussion on NATO-Russia relations will reveal different points of view among alliance members. "We need to bring our allies around to the Polish point of view, but we must also be prepared to seek compromise."

The results of the summit will be discussed at a meeting of Poland's National Security Council on September 9, the president announced. He also expressed satisfaction with PM Donald Tusk's pledge to raise the funding level of Polish armed forces to 2 percent of GDP by 2016, as Komorowski had suggested during Barack Obama's visit to Poland in June.

The Polish president said he would use this argument during the NATO summit to persuade NATO members to keep up with Russia's military spending.

 

Source: prezydent.pl; PAP