Brzezinski - 'Pole would make good NATO chief'

F-16 fighter jet lands at Lask air base in Poland on 11 March, where the US and Poland are involved in joint exercises: photo - PAP / Grzegorz Michalowski

On the 15th anniversary of Poland joining the alliance on 12 March 1999, Zbigniew Brzezinski told the PAP news agency that "maybe the events of recent weeks in Ukraine are confirmation that an energetic and well-informed Secretary General of NATO - with sensitivity to problems and potential risks [in the region] - would be a very good choice. But if not this time, then next," he said on Tuesday.

Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen's five-year term comes to an end in July this year and Brzezinski thinks that a candidate, such as Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski, would be a choice to lead an enlarged alliance.

In 1999, Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary joined the alliance and Brzezinski, who was President Carter's national security adviser from 1977 to 1981 and who currently works at Washington's Center for International Studies (CSIS), said a robust "fence" between superpowers such as NATO can stabilize relations in the long run.

"There is an old American expression: good fences make better neighbours," Brzezinski said, even though recent events in Ukraine have shown that "Russia can still be aggressive".

On further expansion of NATO - more members from the old eastern bloc, who are also now members of the EU - joined in 2004 and Albania and Croatia joined in 2009 - Brzezinski said that "being asked to join NATO is not an act of charity" and member nations must be prepared to play a full role in the collective defence of the alliance. (pg)