31.01.2017
Gen. Surawski appointed new chief of general staff of Polish military
President Andrzej Duda has appointed General Leszek Surawski Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces.
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fot. K. Sitkowski
President Duda presented the nomination to General Surawski during a ceremony held at the Presidential Palace on Tuesday.
General Surawski, 57, replaces General Mieczyslaw Gocul who held the post since 2013. He started his second, three-year term in May 2016, but last Friday General Gocul in a letter published on the Internet announced the end of his service as the chief of the general staff and the end of his military career.
Thanking Gocul for his service, Duda said his service fell on "important and difficult years for the security of Poland and the region".
At a ceremony in the General Staff HQ, Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz noted that Surawski's job will be to restore the General Staff to a decision-making centre in the army. Under a 2014 reform of the military command structure the General Staff was reorganised as a strategic planning unit with command of the armed forces relegated to a General and Operational Command. (PAP)