{"id":18638,"date":"2024-03-03T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-03T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/?p=18638"},"modified":"2024-03-03T07:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-03-03T07:00:00","slug":"the-last-word-polands-critical-security-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/?p=18638","title":{"rendered":"The last word: Poland&#8217;s critical security role"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Poland is not just a security consumer but a provider. Its actions strengthen not only its security but that of Europe as a whole.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[Russia\u2019s Ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebenzya] \u201csaid that Poland attacked Russia during World War I. What is he talking about?\u201d Poland\u2019s Foreign Minister Rados\u0142aw Sikorski told a UN Security Council meeting on February 23.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s the Soviet Union that attacked Poland,\u201d the foreign minister continued \u201ccorrecting the record\u201d in his powerful four-minute speech. \u201cTogether with Nazi Germany on September 17, 1939. They even held a joint victory parade on September 22. He says that Russia has always only beaten back aggression. What were Russian troops doing at the gates of Warsaw in August 1920? They were on a topographical excursion? No, the truth is that for every time that Russia has been invaded, she has invaded ten times.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/emerging-europe.com\/news\/growth-in-central-and-eastern-europe-will-strengthen-in-2024\/\">Growth in Central and Eastern Europe will strengthen in 2024<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/emerging-europe.com\/voices\/rethinking-how-to-communicate-eu-enlargement-in-a-year-of-multiple-elections\/\">Rethinking how to communicate EU enlargement in a year of multiple elections<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/emerging-europe.com\/news\/for-ukraine-to-win-ukrainian-entrepreneurs-must-also-win\/\">\u2018For Ukraine to win, Ukrainian entrepreneurs must also win\u2019<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Ambassador Nebenzya was not saying anything new. He simply repeated a lot of the mendacities that Vladimir Putin had expressed during his infamous <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=hYfByTcY49k\" target=\"_blank\">interview with Tucker Carlson<\/a> a couple of weeks earlier.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn 1939, after Poland cooperated with Hitler\u2014it did collaborate with Hitler, you know\u2014Hitler offered Poland peace and a treaty of friendship and alliance,\u201d Putin said, before blaming Poland for the outbreak of World War II.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But it is not the alternative events that matter here. It is Putin\u2019s and Russia\u2019s recent focus on Poland that is key. In the interview with Carlson, Putin mention Poland as many as 36 times.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Warnings ignored\u00a0<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spiegel.de\/geschichte\/wladimir-putin-und-seine-drohungen-gegen-polen-die-naechste-geschichtsklitterung-a-7a5be6be-6b13-46bf-9f76-a33309bbde13\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a recent editorial<\/a> in <em>Der Spiegel<\/em>, Matth\u00e4us Wehowski highlighted that when Russia was launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago, there were plenty of such warming signals: historical lies in press articles and Putin\u2019s speeches. Now it is Poland that is being targeted increasingly more often by Kremlin rhetoric.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But Poles have been observing its large neighbour for decades. They were alarmed by the deepening ties between Berlin and Moscow and were quite vocal about the threat of Germany\u2019s role in Russia\u2019s Nord Stream II gas pipeline. They saw this strategic energy infrastructure project as a modern-day successor to the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which sparked the outbreak of World War II and the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Germany chose to ignore these warnings until the eve of Russia\u2019s February 2022 attack.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe should have listened to those who know Putin,\u201d Ursula von der Leyen said at the European Commission president\u2019s State of the Union speech in September 2022.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Poland&#8217;s geographical position makes it a frontline state in the face of potential threats from the east. Sharing a border with Russia&#8217;s Kaliningrad exclave and Belarus, Poland is at the crossroads between Western Europe and the East. This means that any conflict involving Eastern European countries would potentially affect Poland directly, making its role in regional security crucial.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Poland\u2019s governments understand that. The defence budget includes almost 120 billion Polish z\u0142oty (or some 28 billion euros) to be spent on defence. That translates into 3.1 per cent of expected gross domestic product (GDP), which is more than the two per cent commitment that all NATO members agreed on a decade ago. If the Armed Forces Support Fund is included, defence expenditure may reach the equivalent of 4.2 per cent of the GDP.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A common front\u00a0<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>As such, Poland is not just a security consumer but a provider. Its actions strengthen not only its security but also that of Europe as a whole. As threats evolve, Poland&#8217;s continued commitment to regional stability will be crucial in maintaining a secure Europe.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the weeks after Russia&#8217;s full-scale invasion, Poland immediately opened its borders and became the primary recipient of Ukrainian refugees. Within the first three months, 3.5 million Ukrainians, more than half of all those who left the country, had crossed the border into Poland.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the first anniversary of Russia\u2019s invasion, Poland\u2019s then Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki paid a visit to Kyiv and brought with him the first delivery of Leopard tanks, a solidarity gesture worthy of a good neighbour. But then, the run-up to the Polish election saw a deepening rift between Poland and Ukraine, despite unprecedented military cooperation between the two countries. The Law and Justice (PiS) populist government repeatedly fell for traps straight out of the Kremlin playbook.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Relations started deteriorating when a stray Ukrainian missile fell on a town in eastern Poland and killed two civilians with Ukraine\u2019s president insisting that the missile was Russian. A dispute over the import of Ukrainian grain\u2014leading to a ban by Poland and some other Central European countries\u2014followed.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now that the war has entered a third year, relations have not improved. Polish farmers say the market has been flooded with cheap agricultural products from Ukraine. They are currently blocking Ukraine\u2019s border with Ukraine.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI am also ready to come to the border alongside our government,\u201d Ukraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on his social media channels. \u201cI would also like to address the European Commission now. We must preserve Europe&#8217;s unity. This is fundamentally in the interests of the European Union.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And Europe as a whole.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In fact, that political and diplomatic liaison and alignment, and a common front, as demonstrated by Foreign Minister Sikorski at the UN and later <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=8wKzNjY5Olk\" target=\"_blank\">on Bloomberg<\/a> reminding the US of its role in light of a common threat, is a sign of leadership. Poland and Ukraine understand that\u2014whatever their temporary, minor differences, mutual support is assured. Others need to follow their lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Photo: Rados\u0142aw Sikorski at the UN. <a href=\"https:\/\/dam.media.un.org\/CS.aspx?VP3=DamView&amp;VBID=2AM94S6ABYSIP&amp;SMLS=1&amp;RW=1440&amp;RH=681\">UN Photo\/Loey Felipe<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Unlike many news and information platforms,&nbsp;<em>Emerging Europe<\/em>&nbsp;is free to read, and always will be.&nbsp;There is no paywall here.&nbsp;We are independent,&nbsp;not affiliated with nor representing any political party or business&nbsp;organisation.&nbsp;We want the very best for emerging Europe, nothing more, nothing less. Your support will help us continue to spread the word about this amazing region.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>You can contribute&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/emergingeurope.krtra.com\/t\/NlQnFuOA2C9c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>. Thank you.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/emergingeurope.krtra.com\/t\/NlQnFuOA2C9c\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/emerging-europe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/copy-of-add-a-heading.png\" alt=\"emerging europe support independent journalism\" class=\"wp-image-50811\"\/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Poland is not just a security consumer but a provider. Its actions strengthen not only its security but that of Europe as a whole.\u00a0 [Russia\u2019s Ambassador<span class=\"excerpt-hellip\"> [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18639,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[6666,21,6320,9,6754,6603,7016,420],"class_list":["post-18638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","tag-defence","tag-economy-politics","tag-featured","tag-poland","tag-radoslaw-sikorski","tag-russia","tag-the-last-word","tag-ukraine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}