“From our perspective, the summit in Ankara was highly successful. President Karol Nawrocki, who led the Polish delegation, was one of the first leaders to take the floor, speaking before the representatives of France and the United Kingdom, which demonstrates the role Poland plays within the Alliance,” Bartosz Grodecki said. In an interview with the Polish Press Agency (PAP), the head of Poland’s National Security Bureau summed up the NATO summit in Ankara.
“We have gone from being a consumer of security to a provider of it and one of the pillars of NATO’s eastern flank. We heard once again that Poland is a model ally, one that shoulders the financial and modernisation burden necessary to strengthen the resilience of the Polish Armed Forces. The reaffirmation of NATO’s unity and its unwavering commitment to collective defence under Article 5 of the Washington Treaty was particularly important. Moreover, the summit declaration defines the threat posed by Russia as direct and long-term, which is something we had advocated,”
Grodecki said.
He also recalled that a decision had been made to expand NATO’s fuel pipeline network across Central and Eastern Europe. This is of fundamental importance both for planning and, should the need arise, for conducting the Alliance’s defensive operations on the continent.
“Following the Ankara summit, there is also no doubt about who leads NATO and what role the United States plays. Any illusions that the Alliance could function without the Americans have now been dispelled,”
the head of the National Security Bureau emphasised.