Poland’s growing clout
Mr Sikorski’s trip – with Kuala Lumpur and Manila as his next stops – comes amid Poland’s rising leadership and policy influence in the European Union, where Warsaw’s strong convictions set it apart from the relative ambivalence of France and Germany, the bloc’s largest economies.
His own experience and force of personality are amplifying Poland’s voice on the world stage, and arguably underpinned his reappointment as foreign minister following elections in October 2023.
A one-time war correspondent in Afghanistan and Angola and resident fellow at conservative think-tank American Enterprise Institute in Washington, Mr Sikorski was also previously a defence minister, the leader of the Polish Lower House, and a member of the European Parliament working on EU foreign affairs and defence matters.
He appealed to an American audience at a recent Atlantic Council meeting, invoking his Polish-American journalist wife Anne Applebaum and his two American sons, one of whom is currently serving in the US Army.
Reiterating previous comments, Mr Sikorski warned that Poland has the right to shoot down Russian missiles that stray into its airspace, and is considering doing the same to missiles that are in “imminent danger” of crossing into Polish airspace.
This was despite Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg objecting to the possibility of Poland shooting down Russian missiles over Ukrainian territory, for fear of a broader conflagration.
Pressed on this, Mr Sikorski said: “Look, we have no desire to get into a direct confrontation with Russia, but Russia has no right to send missiles into our airspace. Nato is a military alliance, but a military alliance doesn’t trump our own Constitution, which says that the Polish army has a duty to defend Poland’s territory.
“One Russian cruise missile last year travelled over two-thirds of Poland and ended up in western Poland, 10km from my own house.”
Poland is the sixth-largest economy in the EU by nominal gross domestic product and the fifth-largest in terms of purchasing power parity.
But Mr Sikorski said Warsaw has solidified its political standing in another way.
“We are not only an indispensable logistical hub for the humanitarian and military assistance to Ukraine, but also a political hub, because we were the ones telling West Europeans that Putin was not a peace-loving person, that he was not exactly a democrat.
“We were warning them that the potential for violence was there and, unfortunately, we were vindicated. So, I hope that gains us some political credibility, and therefore there is a greater willingness to listen to what we have to say now.”
Mr Sikorski’s trip follows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s surprise visit to Singapore in June, when he spoke at the annual Shangri-la Dialogue security forum.
Mr Zelensky had hoped to garner Asian support for a peace summit in Switzerland that eventually lacked the participation of Russia and its biggest ally, China.
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Publish date : 2024-09-03 04:00:00
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