News National Security Bureau

Topic of the debate: Focusing on people: striving for peace and a decent life for all on a sustainable planet.

The priorities of Poland's membership in the UN Security Council, the situation in Ukraine and the preparations for the COP24 climate conference in Katowice, south Poland, were among topics of talks between President Andrzej Duda and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

A survey cited by the Rzeczpospolita daily reveals that Polish citizens see the president as the leading figure in national defence, National Security Bureau (BBN) head Pawel Soloch said Wednesday.

The National Security Bureau (BBN) should be ready with its report on Poland's Strategic Defence Review in several weeks, the bureau's head, Pawel Soloch, announced Thursday.

The role of Central and Eastern European states in shaping transatlantic relations, the role of the Hungarian presidency in the Visegrad Group, and the Russian-Belarusian Zapad-17 exercises were among the topics of the panel discussion "Central Europe for the Future of Transatlantic Relations" organized by BBN during the Economic Forum in Krynica.

The forthcoming Russian-Belarusian Zapad'17 manoeuvres should be carefully monitored since they give rise to serious doubts regarding, for instance, the number of troops taking part, Pawel Soloch, the Polish National Security Bureau (BBN) head, has told PAP.

Poland's President Andrzej Duda on Friday said that 78 years after the outbreak of the Second World War, there was a need for remembrance, forgiveness and atonement.

"I am convinced that you will be able to fulfil tasks facing you, and that in the future the Polish Navy will have a professional staff ready for brave decisions", President Andrzej Duda wrote in a letter to graduates of the Naval Academy in Gdynia.

Deputy head of the National Security Bureau (BBN), Dariusz Gwizdala, said that the defence ministry's Startegic Defence Review was not binding for President Andrzej Duda, but represented a starting point for discussions on developing Poland's armed forces.

At their face-to-face meeting in Warsaw late on Thursday, Polish President Andrzej Duda and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg discussed the implementation of last year's NATO summit decisions, the Polish President's Office has announced.