“Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all.” The words of George Washington, first president of the United States and a soldier, so somebody who might be expected to know a thing or two about war and peace. And when it comes to cultivating peace and harmony with all, Poland is ready to share responsibility for global peace and security.

Speaking in the Polish parliament on Wednesday, the foreign minister Jacek Czaputowicz said: “Poland stands ready to share responsibility for peace and security in Europe and beyond, in the spirit of the 360 degree approach.” He added that “to defend allied territory, Polish troops are present in Latvia and Romania as part of NATO forces, while Polish aircraft police the skies over Lithuania.”

Delivering his annual foreign policy speech, Czaputowicz told deputies that Poland is also helping to combat terrorism and address the causes of migration beyond NATO, through activities in Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Iraq, Afghanistan, the Mediterranean and Africa. “Furthermore, we are part of military operations of the Global Coalition against Daesh, and of NATO’s training missions in Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, and Qatar,” he said. Some 1,500 Polish soldiers are currently stationed abroad, standing as “an example of solidarity with our allies,” Czaputowicz said. “Their commitment is helping to maintain peace in the world, and it is making our country safer”. 

Moving to the priorities for Polish foreign policy over the year ahead, Caputowicz said that “today Poland is an active country whose voice is being heard, and a country that commands growing respect among its foreign partners.” And in this area, “our overriding aim must be to restore the EU’s full and unquestionable legitimacy, to win back voters’ trust in European institutions, and to restore their ability to solve people’s real problems,” Czaputowicz said.

The foreign minister warned that the European project was under threat from populist movements on both the left and the right. “We consider these threats as a symptom of the crisis Europe is going through, not as its cause. The EU institutions should operate on the basis of powers set out in the treaties and pursue objectives that advance [the interests of] all the members.”

“We are in favour of a strong EU, enjoying the support of the countries and nations that are part of it, an EU that contributes to the economic growth and prosperity of its societies and supports equalising the living standards of citizens of all member states,” the minister said. For Czaputowicz, “by taking care of Europe’s future, we are also looking out for Poland’s interests.”

And the priorities for relations with the United States include the continued efforts to expand the US military presence in Poland (please see Historic), the strengthening of NATO’s eastern flank, and joint security and defence projects, including enhancing energy security cooperation. Polish-US energy cooperation should make Poland less dependent on Russian gas and he said that Poland, like the US, will consistently oppose the Nord Steam 2 project. 

By supplying the Russian gas directly to Germany, bypassing eastern EU member states, the project is seen as a threat to the region’s and the EU’s energy security. A major part of Russian gas is currently exported via Ukraine. It would be possible once Nord Stream 2 is operational to turn off gas supplies to Ukraine, while leaving those to western Europe undisturbed. The situation to the east of Poland remains a challenge for Poland, he said and noted Russia’s continuing aggressive policy against Ukraine 

Other issues tackled in Cazputowicz’s speech included Brexit, Polish-Israeli relations, relations with France and Germany, including renewing cooperation via the Weimar Triangle. He also stressed the role played regional cooperation as an element of European integration, through the Visegrad Group (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia), the Three Seas Initiative (countries located between the Baltic, Adriatic and Black seas), and the Bucharest Nine (Poland, Romania, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria).

In the conclusion to his speech, Czaputowicz appealed for cross-party cooperation in foreign policy, stating that “the country’s foreign policy is a national, and not a party matter.” And that is the point. Perhaps not going quite so far as Lord Palmerston, that nations have no permanent friends or allies, they only have permanent interests, Poland’s foreign policy appear to have a coherence which, leaving aside the current manages realistically to balance a response to historical threats with current opportunities and long-term security.

“I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.” The words of Thomas Jefferson which have particular resonance in this part of the world where the history of the past is all too often, among politicians at least, apt to be a distraction from the dreams of the future. But not always, as we think of one celebration of the recent past which does realise a dream of the past, present and future: Poland’s military security.

Thus, Poland marks the twentieth anniversary of joining NATO, something which Poland’s president Duda described as historic. Speaking during a visit to the Multinational Corps Northeast in Szczecin, the president said: “Poland joining the alliance finally confirmed Poland’s sovereignty and independence, as well as its departure from the Russian sphere of influence and entrance to the Western geopolitical zone”.

A day earlier, prime ministers and defence ministers from Poland, the Czech, Hungary, and Slovakia, the countries which make up the Visegrad Group (V4) met soldiers from the 1st Armoured Brigade in Warsaw. During the meeting, the Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak said that “today we cannot imagine NATO without our countries.”

“We are supporting each other, and we make up a community, which guarantees safety”. He also said that the troops from the 1st Armoured Brigade in Warsaw are soon to be deployed to Afghanistan as part of a NATO mission.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki added that over the last 20 year, the V4 countries have proven to be valuable members of the alliance. Slovakian Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini said during the event in Warsaw that joining NATO was for his country “the highest security guarantee.” He added: “Our strength is the ability to discuss our differences and finding common answers to challenges”.

On Tuesday the celebrations moved to Prague, where the presidents of Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic were to attend an event at Prague Castle. Poland’s Andrzej Duda, the Czech Republic’s Miloš Zeman and Hungary’s János Áder were expected to be joined by President Andrej Kiska of Slovakia, whose country joined NATO five years later than the others in 2004.

And there is cause for celebration. As NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in Warsaw in early March: “We are very grateful for the contribution Poland makes to NATO every day”. “Poland is a very committed ally, an ally which is contributing to our shared security, to our collective defence in many different ways,” Stoltenberg added. “And that’s something which we really welcome.”

Poland is one of the few members meeting the NATO target of spending two per cent of GDP on defence, participates in NATO foreign missions, such as in Afghanistan, and enthusiastically welcomes the presence on NATO troops in Poland. Indeed, it goes further and is actively lobbying for a permanent US base to be established in Poland as an enhancement of its security beyond the current rotating NATO battalions, introduced in response to Russia’s annexation of the Crimea in 2014.

It is this perceived threat from Russia, which inevitably opposed Poland’s accession to NATO, which motivates Poland to continue look beyond NATO membership as the achievement of a strategic goal, and to the United States as a security guarantor. The permanent US base is but the latest step in a policy of staying close to the US which began with Poland’s being in 2003 one of the few European countries, along with the United Kingdom and Spain, to send troops to participate in the US-led war in Iraq.            

As far as “Fort Trump” is concerned, according to a 2018 document entitled “Proposal for a permanent US presence in Poland” which was sent to US government officials, members of Congress, and Washington think tanks, Poland is seeking a US tank division to be based here for which it is prepared to spend up to $2 billion (€ 1.77 billion) to achieve.

For critics of Poland’s governing Law and Justice party, which expresses ideological sympathies US president Trump, this effort to increase the US presence in Poland is a frolic of the party’s own. Others think that such a project should take place within the NATO framework, rather than bilaterally. But that is to miss the point. At a time when many NATO members are less than whole-hearted in their defence commitments and their effective operational readiness – for example, Germany – and when the US is questioning their perceived failure to contribute adequately, it does make sense for Poland to seek something more. 

In the event of an attack on Poland, the presence of US troops would no doubt make Washington think twice about hesitating to implement the security guarantees of the NATO treaty. From the government that introduced the 500+ programme to help families, the “NATO+” programme to help security is not such a bad idea.