President visits Polish Military Contingent in Romania
President Andrzej Duda, visiting on Wednesday Polish soldiers serving in the multinational NATO forces in Romania, said that both they and their relatives should be sure of the great gratitude of the Polish state for their service and dedication.
The President noted that seeking NATO's presence in Poland at the NATO summit in 2016 the Polish authorities declared solidarity. "This means not only that we need an allied presence with us, but that we are ready to bring this allied presence, or security, to our friends, Duda stressed during a meeting with the Polish Military Contingent soldiers in Romania.
Andrzej Duda thanked the soldiers for their service. "I am here on the eve of Christmas, to share a holy wafer with you, to bring at least for a moment the breeze of Poland, our homeland to you. Alongside my wishes, I would like to ask you to pass my highest regards to your families when you talk to them before Christmas," the President said.
The visit started with a tour of an Art Museum in Craiova, where Poland's interwar president the late Ignacy Mościcki and army commander Edward Rydz-Śmigły were interned during WWII. Later the officials visited the Polish Military Contingent, took part in Christmas meetings with soldiers and award distinctions.
The Polish 230-strong contingent belongs to the multinational NATO forces stationed there as part of the Alliance's enhanced presence in the Black Sea region.
Within the framework of strengthening NATO's eastern flank, multi-national NATO battalions have been deployed to the region.
The decision to send multinational battalion battle groups to Poland and the Baltic states, including Latvia, was confirmed at the NATO summit in Warsaw in July 2016. The goal of the initiative known as the Enhanced Forward Presence (EFP) is to strengthen the alliance's eastern flank. Poland provided troops to battalions stationed in Romania and Latvia.
Source: PAP, president.pl