The defence ministers of Poland and Germany – Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz and Boris Pistorius – signed a military cooperation agreement in Warsaw on Wednesday. The ceremony took place one day after a thuggish attack by German police on members of Ruch Obrony Granic, the Border Defence Movement, who wanted to pay tribute to Polish victims of the Second World War. “I do not regard Donald Tusk as a politician who represents Polish interests. Quite the opposite. What he is doing serves the interests of Berlin, Paris and Moscow,” Prof. Bogdan Musiał told Niezależna.pl.
The document, which is to replace the currently binding framework agreement on defence cooperation from June 2011, concerns, among other things, the holding of joint military exercises. The Polish Ministry of National Defence had earlier stressed that the “initiative is aimed at systematising ongoing operational cooperation, taking into account the current security situation in Central and Eastern Europe.”
The agreement is intended to supplement defence mechanisms within NATO and the European Union, but it does not contain any security guarantees.
Unlike the previously concluded treaties with France and the United Kingdom, the defence agreement with Germany was signed only at the level of defence ministers. The Polish government decided to lower the document’s rank to bypass a possible veto by the president.
An attempt to push the U.S. out of Europe
Political scientist and historian Bogdan Musiał, who specialises in the history of Germany and Russia, stressed in an interview with Niezależna.pl that the successive defence-related treaties and agreements signed by Donald Tusk’s government “fit into the policy of Germany, France and Moscow.” “This is a continuation of Moscow’s long-term policy pursued since 1945, i.e., getting rid of, pushing the United States out of Europe,” he added.
“From the very beginning, NATO has been the structure that secured the presence of the United States in Europe and guaranteed the inviolability of the countries functioning within those structures. And the Germans and the French have long been breaking NATO apart from within. What they are doing now, that is, creating a European military force that could become an alternative in the future, is certainly not in Poland’s interest,”
Niezależna.pl’s interviewee assessed.
Germany is not an ally
Prof. Musiał noted that Germany “has never been Poland’s ally, either in the past or in the present.” “They have never stood in Poland’s defence; quite the opposite, they have always been on the other side. If they are not direct aggressors, they are indirect ones. This did not change after 1945,” he explained.
In this context, he recalled the period of martial law in Poland. “Germany, the Federal Republic of Germany, while formally being in NATO, supported the Soviet Union at that time in pacifying the situation in Poland. Poland’s emergence as an independent state was something negative for the Germans,” he stressed.
“It was in Germany’s interest to secure its sphere of influence, and this did not change after 1989. Until the collapse of the Soviet Union, Germany, I am speaking of the Federal Republic of Germany, always supported Moscow in activities directed against Poland. When discussions began in Poland in 1990 about leaving the Warsaw Pact, the Germans did everything to keep that pact in place and, God forbid, to prevent Poland from joining NATO. And nothing has changed to this day. Germany’s long-term policy, hostile towards the United States and NATO and seeking to replace the alliance with the Americans, is suicidal for Poland,”
Prof. Musiał explained.
Tusk is playing for Berlin, Paris and Moscow
Niezależna.pl’s interviewee noted that despite the Kremlin’s aggressive policy, “Germany is once again seeking an understanding with Moscow.” “And such an understanding always takes place at the expense of the nations and states located between Berlin and Moscow. There has never been any different situation in the past, and it will continue to be so. After all, that was the case until Russia invaded Ukraine. And even after that, Chancellor Scholz blocked aid to Kyiv. That was an evidently pro-Moscow policy,” he explained.
Asked why Donald Tusk’s government is aligning itself with this kind of policy, Prof. Musiał stated that he “does not regard Donald Tusk as a politician who represents Polish interests.” “Quite the opposite. What he is doing serves the interests of Berlin, Paris and Moscow,” the historian concluded.