“I am personally pleased, and I regard it as a success of my office, that we did not sign the national security strategy and are working on a new one. We see that the strategy of our biggest ally in the field of security is just now coming to light. Therefore, we must adapt the national security strategy to the vision of our most important ally. These decisions made three months ago raised concerns, but now they are taking on a concrete shape,” President of the Republic of Poland Karol Nawrocki said today in Riga.
During the press conference, Edgars Rinkevics pointed out that relations between the two countries are excellent. He thanked Poles and Polish soldiers stationed at the Adazi base as part of the multinational brigade. He also expressed gratitude for Poland’s support in talks with the US administration for the Baltic states in their efforts to disconnect from Russian energy sources and connect to Western grids.
President Karol Nawrocki added that in many areas, including security, Poland and Latvia represent the same values and act together.
Our meeting today confirmed the cooperation between Poland and Latvia in many areas and in many formats that are important to us, in building formats responsible for NATO’s eastern flank, that is, in the Three Seas Initiative, in economic initiatives. The best proof and symbol of this are the Polish soldiers at the Adazi base, the President noted.
Karol Nawrocki said that the topics discussed also included infrastructure issues such as Via Baltica and Rail Baltica, but the most time was devoted to security matters. He pointed to the responsibility of Central and Eastern European states for the security of all of Europe.
I am very pleased with the declaration of the President and the decision of the Latvian government that 5 percent of Latvia’s GDP will also be allocated to the armed forces. This proves that Poland and Latvia are not just countries expecting NATO’s support, but that we also provide security, and investments in this are indispensable today, he added.
He said he had invited Rinkevics to next year’s meeting on the security of the Baltic Sea.
We devoted a lot of time to EU matters, which are publicly troubling in Europe – ecological and energy issues. We also noted in our discussion the great success of connecting the Baltic states to the EU electricity grid. We are both aware that there is still much to be done in this area in the region, Karol Nawrocki said.
He added that an important topic was the hybrid warfare conducted by Belarus.
We have no doubt that on the one hand, the presence of NATO forces and the building of relations and cooperation between the EU and the USA are what create security in the region and reinforce the conviction that we must build our responsibility for our armed forces, and on the other hand, we agree that the United States is the guarantor of security for our region of the world, the Polish President added.
“The American strategy should not come as a surprise”
The Presidents were asked about the new US National Security Strategy and Europe’s role in it, as well as the critical comments made by Donald Trump and his administration about Europe’s condition.
This is a question of where Europe and the EU, which I support, stand at this moment. It took the President of the United States Donald Trump to speak to Western Europe in such a way that it understood. Central European countries have long been saying that Europe is in crisis, in chaos, dealing with matters that are not the most important for our region. Perhaps we sometimes do not fully understand each other with Western European countries because we are right next to the border with aggressive, neo-imperial Russia and we focus on matters crucial for Europe’s survival and security. This is where EU security begins, and the EU delayed until the meeting in The Hague to raise its defense budgets. Today, we are countries that serve as models of how to safeguard security by allocating financial resources to defense. The American security strategy cannot be a surprise to anyone who has followed Donald Trump’s statements or spoken with Trump, a man who takes responsibility for the security of all Europe and the entire world, Karol Nawrocki said.
These statements are in no way confrontational toward the security vision of the countries of the region, which pay for their own security and are not security recipients; which expect US soldiers to be present in the region. We simply do not have the time or emotional space in the region to deal with issues that are crucial for Western Europe and are clouded by ideological matters. We are living in times when the EU is in chaos, and the essence of democracy is to talk about it, the Polish President added.
“We must adapt our strategy”
President Nawrocki expressed satisfaction and considered it a success of his office that we did not sign the national security strategy and are working on a new strategy.