"I have a feeling that the United States is serious about Poland's security"

"I am tremendously pleased with this Warsaw visit, which is one of the US President’s first international trips, as it underlines our bonds and the high quality of the alliance between Poland and the United States", President Duda said.

"It also demonstrates that we are, and mutually see each other, as loyal partners, who collaborate in a number of dimensions, inter alia, within the North Atlantic Alliance. Today, just a moment ago, we discussed it with Mr. Trump privately and then during a plenary meeting of our delegations", he went on to add.

"Discussions of the plenary meeting of our delegations focused on the presence of American soldiers in Poland and the strengthening of security in our part of Europe and, at the same time, on NATO’s Eastern Flank. We discussed generally security issues in this part of Europe and the situation in Ukraine. We also talked about the upcoming Zapad-17 military exercises, which are to be held in Belarus", Duda continued. He added that the talks also concerned contracts related to modernization of the Polish army.

"I can say that I am tremendously pleased with those discussions because I have a feeling that the United States are very serious, and President Donald Trump is very serious, about Poland’s security; he is also very serious in considering the USA as our loyal ally", Duda said.

"Additionally, President Trump was very firm in stressing the powerful position of Poles in the USA – Polish Americans, whom he had met before the elections, and I want to express once again my gratitude for that. I want to say ‘thank you’ to him for appreciating the contribution which Americans of the Polish origin and Poles make to the growth and development of prosperity of the United States", Duda added.

"We also spoke about economic contracts – not only military ones, but also those that relate to security, such as gas supplies to Poland", Duda said.

The President reminded that Poland received gas supplies from the USA on 8 June. "This turned out to be a success. We experienced no problems whatsoever, no obstacles for the gas to reach our gas port via the Swinoujscie terminal. This opens the door for further contracts. And I do hope that a long-term contract for LNG supplies from the USA will be concluded in the near future, allowing Poland to continue to diversify its sources of that extremely important fuel", the President commented.

"Shortly, I and President Trump are going to attend a meeting at the Three Seas Initiative to further discuss those issues, which relate to energy security and development of transatlantic ties between Europe and the USA", announced Andrzej Duda at a press conference.

"We will be talking about development of infrastructure in our part of Europe, i.e. in Central Europe, but also about development of the European Union, because all countries that belong to the Three Seas Initiative are also EU member states", he added.

"As regards implementation of the cohesion policy, we perceive it from this EU aspect and we want to pursue that policy also through development of the North-South infrastructure with a view to increasing competitiveness of our countries, and thus competitiveness of the EU", Duda indicated.

"I hope that we can do it also in cooperation with the United States on a win-win basis and that it will be beneficial both for the US and for our countries", he stated.

Źródło: Reuters, PAP/tłumaczenie Intertext.com.pl