He’s the country’s first leader who reached adulthood after the end of the Cold War in 1989. ‘Son’ of Kaczyńskiĭuda’s surprise victory in May’s presidential election marked a generational shift in Polish politics. He wants “American armies, or joint Polish-American bases” in Poland, he added. Really present, not only symbolically,” Duda said. And that will happen when NATO is present here. “Today we are the border of NATO and it would be good if we were a really significant flank. His second overseas destination as president is Berlin.Įchoing the views of Estonia’s hawkish President Toomas Ilves, Duda is eager to strengthen the security ties with the U.S. Speaking over the roar of airplane engines on his way back to Warsaw last Thursday after a visit to a Polish-German-Danish regional NATO headquarters in Szczecin - the only permanent alliance base in formerly communist central Europe - Duda said that his priority would be to overcome German resistance to an expanded NATO ground presence in the region.
And that will happen when NATO is present here.” His office is calling for a summit of central European leaders in November to push for a large and permanent NATO ground presence in the region. Moscow has always condemned such ideas, which are also resisted by Berlin and other western European allies who see it as provocative and a violation of a 1997 accord between the alliance and Russia. The country has the largest military in the region and is in the midst of an expensive defense modernization program. Poland could be a “security guarantor” of the three Baltic states, he said. He called Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine the past 18 months “alarming” and “a rebirth of the imperial spirit, of imperial nostalgia” that threatens other neighbors. “I think we can intensify relations with our partners, especially when it comes to the countries of central and eastern Europe,” Duda said. “I would like Poland to be a country which could in times of need lend a hand and help those who are weaker.” Brussels isn’t on his immediate travel itinerary. A small but telling sign of the new Polish orientation was this week’s announcement of the destination for his first overseas trip on August 23: Estonia, the small Baltic nation and NATO ally that sits on the doorstep of a newly assertive Russia.
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