President Karol Nawrocki assured that when it comes to security matters, the president and the government speak with one voice. He emphasised that “issues of security are excluded from political dispute.” The president also stressed that peace in Ukraine must be lasting and cannot leave Russia with a sense of victory.
Karol Nawrocki, who paid a visit to Lithuania on Monday, was asked on TVP Wilno whether the President of Poland and the government speak with one voice on security issues.
“Yes, of course. When it comes to security matters, we are in constant contact with the Ministry of National Defence. Security issues are excluded from political dispute,”
he replied.
The president noted that Poland also speaks with one voice together with Western European states regarding security and the assessment of threats from Russia, despite differences in approaches to EU integration or ideological matters. He pointed out that Russia has for years posed a real threat to the Baltic states and Poland, and the war in Ukraine only confirms this. Nawrocki also stressed the need to carefully monitor the Russian-Belarusian military exercises known as Zapad.
Peace must be lasting
When asked about a potential peace between Ukraine and Russia, the president emphasised that it must, above all, be a lasting peace.
“A peace that does not give the Russian Federation the feeling that war pays off. Such a peace would be detrimental to international security policy and the entire security architecture, so it must be a lasting peace, one from which Russia does not emerge with a sense of military, territorial, or economic victory,”
he said.
“As for the Russian Federation and Vladimir Putin, in Poland, and I believe also in Lithuania and the Baltic states, we have no other experience than unending aggression, from Tsarist Russia through Bolshevik Russia to the present day. Russia is simply aggressive,”
he added.
No Polish troops will be sent
The president assured that he does not plan to approve the deployment of Polish troops to Ukraine. He indicated that Poland’s support should consist of infrastructure, equipment, and military aid, but without the involvement of the Polish Army on the front.
“In terms of sending troops to Ukraine, also for what I would call identity-related reasons, or because of Russia’s unhealthy emotional fixation on Poland and Lithuania, the priority should lie with Western states, whose soldiers do not provoke such strong negative emotions in Moscow,”
he noted. He also reminded that Poland is the main hub for assistance to Ukraine and fulfils its NATO commitments beyond the required standards.
Nawrocki also pointed to hybrid threats at Poland’s eastern border, particularly related to migration, and to the need for strategic cooperation with Baltic and Nordic states. He underlined the importance of Finland, which has the longest border with Russia, and called for expanding the Bucharest Nine in order to strengthen the security system along the entire border with the Russian Federation.
On Monday, President Nawrocki held talks in Vilnius with President Gitanas Nausėda, Prime Minister-designate Inga Ruginienė, and the Speaker of the Lithuanian Seimas Saulius Skvernelis. Vilnius is the next capital, after Washington and the Vatican, that the president has visited since taking office at the beginning of August. On Tuesday, the president begins a visit to Helsinki, where he will meet with Finnish President Alexander Stubb.