"No discord on strengthening NATO eastern flank" - News - National Security Bureau

04.09.2014

"No discord on strengthening NATO eastern flank"

The NATO summit in Newport, Wales, has brought no basic discord regarding the reinforcement of NATO's eastern flank, Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski said Thursday in Newport.

Referring to aid for Ukraine, Bronislaw Komorowski said Ukraine would have to specify what kind of help it needed.

Bronislaw Komorowski told reporters that the to-date summit debates gave hope for optimism and no major controversies as to what needed to be done to strengthen the eastern NATO members. He added that NATO appeared to be abandoning its involvement in foreign missions and was reverting to its traditional role as an organisation focused on protecting its members' territory.

In this context he voiced contentment over the timely conclusion of the ISAF operation in Afghanistan, which in his opinion "came at a good time considering the emergence of new threats (in the form of - PAP) Russia's military involvement in Ukraine".

Bronislaw Komorowski said that the Alliance's plan to form a 4,000-strong rapid response force within the NATO Response Force "meant clear progress from the point of view of Poland's expectations regarding the pace and effectiveness of NATO's reactions".

The president stressed that NATO's main deterrence task was to prepare for implementing eventuality plans. "For Poland it is a matter of basic importance for all potential aggressors to know that there will be an immediate and effective response", he pointed out.

Bronislaw Komorowski remarked that in face of the Ukraine crisis the NATO members would be well-advised to raise their defence outlays. This, he said, would also help strengthen the Alliance. In this context he reminded that Poland's military budget currently stood at 1.95 percent GDP with plans to raise it to 2 percent from 2016.

"We will try to encourage our allies to resign from lowering their defence spending and raise the outlays where possible", Bronislaw Komorowski said. he added that Russia had doubled its military spending over the past years.

Commenting his talks with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko during the summit talks, Bronislaw Komorowski said Polish aid for Ukraine required Ukraine to specify the kind of help it wanted.

"For us it is of basic importance for the Ukrainian side to specify its aims", Bronislaw Komorowski underscored. Asked if Poland was considering arms sales to Ukraine, Komorowski said that "such expectations did not emerge" during his talks with Poroshenko.

Bronislaw Komorowski assured that Poland and most NATO members were intent on helping in the resolution of the crisis in east Ukraine. Commenting Russia's plans of a ceasefire in the conflict, he said that Poland and all the NATO countries "hoped it would become reality".

The summit also summed up the ISAF mission and discussed future NATO cooperation with Afghanistan.

On Friday the NATO leaders are to reach a decision on strengthening NATO's military presence on the alliance's eastern flank following Russia's policy in Ukraine, and on forming a high-readiness reaction force ("spearhead").

 

Source: prezydent.pl; PAP