Poland Embraces The West Amid Ukraine Crisis After Years Of Drifting Away.

Biden’s two-day visit to Poland – which included stops in Rzeszow, the southeast, and Warsaw – underscores the rapidly changing nature of the US-Poland relationship, which has become a close partnership in the wake of the Russian invasion. Ukraine. The story goes on under the ad Arriving at the Presidential Palace in Poland for a meeting with Duda on Saturday afternoon, Biden hugged the Polish leader and the two men watched the cameras as they shook hands and Biden put his other hand on Duda’s shoulder. At the beginning of an enlarged bilateral meeting, Duda said that the relationship between the United States and Poland was “flourishing” and that the bond had been “greatly strengthened” by Biden’s visit. In his remarks, Biden stressed the United States’ continued commitment to defending NATO member states, seeking to reassure the Polish people, who said Duda felt “a great sense of threat” over Russia’s aggression. “We regard Article 5 as a sacred commitment,” Biden said, referring to the alliance’s collective defense pact. “Not a throwaway, a sacred commitment associated with every NATO member.” The story goes on under the ad Biden’s visit comes at a remarkable time for Poland. In the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the country made international headlines for its tough stance on refugees, its anti-LGBTQ policies, and its strong ties to both the United States and Europe. Biden ostensibly referred to some of the leaders’ ideological differences on Saturday. “The most important thing that unites us is our values: freedom, freedom of the press; that the government is transparent, ensuring that people have the right to vote,” he said. In recent weeks, however, Polish leaders have turned their attention to attacking some of the key institutions of liberal democracy and claiming to be defenders of European unity and values. The story goes on under the ad “Your presence here, Mr President, first of all sends a very big sign of unity,” Duda said Friday before he and Biden briefed Rzeszow on humanitarian efforts. “This is a huge sign of support and Euro-Atlantic unity – unity with my country, with Poland. “It proves a great friendship between Poland and the United States and a very deep alliance.” However, the strengthened link between Poland and the United States could be temporary. The two countries have already clashed for a short time over the issue of MiG fighter jets and there are cracks over how many refugees Poland has already received. Experts say they hope Biden will not ignore human rights concerns with Poland simply because of the crisis in Ukraine. But for now, Warsaw is at the heart of the transatlantic response. It is a NATO front-line country that hosts a growing number of troops and weapons, as well as a hub for supplies to Ukraine and the site of a historic humanitarian emergency. Poland currently hosts 2.2 million of the 3.7 million Ukrainians who have fled the war, according to United Nations estimates. The story goes on under the ad “We do not call them ‘refugees,’” Duda said on Friday. “It’s our guests, our brothers, our neighbors from Ukraine who are in a very difficult situation today.” On Saturday, Biden visited refugees at the PGE Narodowy Stadium in Warsaw, meeting with the city’s mayor, Rafal Trzakowski. The president, without a tie and wearing a Bo Biden Foundation hat, crossed a crowd of refugees. At one point he took a little girl in a pink coat and pigtails and took a selfie with her. In another, he hugged a woman in what appeared to be an emotional conversation. As he was leaving, the president told reporters that he had met some refugees from Mariupol, a Ukrainian city besieged by Russian forces, and said he was always surprised by “the depth and strength of the human spirit.” When asked what made him think of President Vladimir Putin, he called the Russian leader a “butcher.” But tensions over refugees have begun to go public. The story goes on under the ad “In 2015, we had 300,000 to 400,000 people coming to Europe every month. “Only 300,000 people came to Warsaw in three weeks,” he said. “We want to get everyone who needs help, but how many children can we get in schools? “How can we do everything we can to prevent the health system in our city from deteriorating?” And although Poland bears the brunt of the war-related migration burden, its leaders seem reluctant to adopt a pan-European quota system for the resettlement of refugees, as it could be applied in future emergencies, preferring an ad hoc approach. with European diplomats they know. the discussions, which spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive issues. The story goes on under the ad The Polish Interior Ministry did not respond to a request for comment on its position on the refugee quota. Poland is also repatriating migrants from the Middle East to its border with Belarus, as part of a geopolitical confrontation with that country. Some see Russia’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine as a “moment” for Poland, which, like the Baltic states and other countries in Eastern and Central Europe, has long been wary of Russia. “There is a growing awareness in the West that the successive governments of Poland and Central Europe have been warning Putin for 20 years,” said Radoslaw Sikorski, a Polish MEP and former foreign minister. “There is a desire to hear what we are saying now – and this moment must be understood.” The story goes on under the ad Poland’s political reform comes after years of toughness between the ruling Law and Justice Party, or PiS, and Washington and Brussels. Although Poland’s populist leadership cultivated close ties with Washington under President Donald Trump, Biden was cooler. As a candidate, he condemned the creation of the so-called “LGBT-free zones” in Poland, writing on Twitter that “they have no place in the European Union or anywhere in the world.” In 2020, he cited Poland, along with Hungary and Belarus, as countries where democracy is threatened. The Polish ruling party also angered Washington last year with plans for a media law that appeared to target Poland’s largest broadcaster, TVN, which is owned by Discovery, an American company. Duda eventually vetoed the legislation, allowing Discovery to retain its majority stake. The ties with the European Union were even faster. For years, Poland has been trapped in a heated debate with the bloc over democratic backwardness, especially when it comes to the rule of law. Since coming to power in 2015, the Law and Justice party has claimed sweeping executive power in the judiciary – repeating the process of appointing, promoting and disciplining judges. In 2017, a Council of Europe committee warned that the reorganization of the judiciary had a “striking resemblance to the institutions that existed in the Soviet Union and its satellites.” The story goes on under the ad He also tried to turn the public media into a party organ, drawing criticism from Reporters Without Borders, who said the country’s media had “become the mouthpiece of government propaganda”. Poland’s leaders are now pushing Brussels to defuse billions of dollars in pandemic recovery funds held over questions about the politicization of the Polish judiciary, arguing that the money is needed to tackle the refugee crisis. Human rights groups and others question how pandemic recovery money – intended for specific purposes over longer periods of time – would help refugees now, especially since much of the cost so far has been borne by ordinary Polish citizens rather than by the government. Camino Mortera-Martinez, head of the office of the Center for European Reform in Brussels, said she was concerned that the crisis in Ukraine would give Poland a “release from prison”. He believes that the European Commission will unfreeze the money “not because Poland needs it, but because it does not want to jeopardize the unity of the bloc at the moment”. However, Biden’s hastily planned stance here comes at a critical time for Poland, and its presence is both substantial and symbolic. Biden’s visit “gives hope and security to the people of Poland and possibly also to many Ukrainians,” said Richard Sneff, Poland’s former ambassador to the United States. The needs of Russia’s war, Schnepf added, have made the Warsaw government more closely committed to its Western partners – a show of unity in the face of growing tensions over Poland’s attacks on the rule of law, media independence and the rights of LGBT people. Sneff said that by supporting Poland at the moment, Biden “does not forget the past”, but simply supports a critical ally in the ongoing crisis with Ukraine. “It’s important to host the leader of Poland’s most important security ally,” Schnepf said. “It shows us that this is a very personal involvement of President Biden.” Rauhala reported from Brussels and Stanley-Becker from Berlin. Quentin Ariès in Brussels contributed to this report.