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Polish, US presidents to meet at NATO summit?

PR dla Zagranicy
Victoria Bieniek 05.07.2018 12:44
Poland wants a meeting between the Polish and US president, the head of the National Security Bureau in Warsaw said on Thursday.
Andrzej Duda und Donald TrumpAndrzej Duda und Donald TrumpBild: Jakub Szymczuk/KPRP

Paweł Soloch told Polish Radio that a meeting could take place when both Polish President Andrzej Duda and US President Donald Trump attend a NATO summit in Brussels next week.

But he stressed that no such arrangements had been made.

Media had speculated that the presidents could meet during Duda’s trip in May to New York to chair a debate at the United Nations Security Council, on which Poland is a non-permanent member, but no such talks were held.

Polish media also suggested that diplomatic ties were strained after Warsaw introduced strict anti-defamation laws which drew criticism from the US as well as Israel, although both Polish and US officials denied that high-level talks had been suspended.

The US State Department had warned Poland that the laws could have a "potential impact on ... our ability to be effective partners".

The law’s controversial provisions for fines and jail terms for people who accused Poland as a nation of being complicit in the Holocaust were scrapped late last month. The move was welcomed by the US.

Duda and Trump have met three times so far, in Warsaw in July last year, when Trump visited Warsaw ahead of the G20 summit in Germany, in New York in September 2017, when Duda addressed the United Nations General Assembly, and this January at the Davos Economic Forum.

NATO summit

Soloch also told Polish Radio that Poland was urging other European countries to increase their military spending.

A White House spokesman said that Trump would tell his NATO partners that the US is not a “piggy bank” which maintains global security.

Poland and the US are among a small handful of NATO countries that meet the military alliance’s target of allies earmarking at least 2 percent of their GDP for defence, according to officials in Poland.

The summit next week is set to discuss security challenges facing allies, boosting transatlantic ties, NATO reform, cybersecurity and fighting hybrid threats. (vb/pk)

Source: IAR

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