Poland welcomes NATO ‘spearhead’
PR dla Zagranicy
John Beauchamp
05.09.2014 14:26
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NATO rapid reaction force to get base in Poland? John Beauchamp reports.
The continuing conflict in Ukraine topped the agenda at the two-day NATO meeting in Wales, with the Alliance saying that a base in Szczecin on the Baltic coast will be made available for NATO’s rapid reaction force.
Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski (C) and Polish Defense Minister Tomasz Siemoniak (L) attend a North Atlantic Council meeting during the NATO Summit 2014 at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, Wales, 05.09.2014.Photo: PAP/EPA/OLIVER HOSLET
As John Beauchamp reports, over 60 NATO leaders convened in the Welsh town of Newport, Thursday and Friday, to tackle the key issues which the Alliance faces.
Poland has been pushing for a permanent NATO troop presence on its territory since the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine. Polish President Bronisław Komorowski told journalists that a logistics base in the Baltic port of Szczecin would be made available for a NATO rapid reaction force.
“Some 4,000 troops will be part of a rapid reaction force (...) This is evident progress, also in terms of Poland’s expectations,” Komorowski said.
However, Shada Islam, policy head at Friends of Europe, a Brussels-based think-tank, says “this NATO rapid reaction force is a really a very pale image of what was actually asked for (...) and critics say that it will be very difficult to deploy.”