Morawiecki: NATO's eastern flank must be strenghtened

"NATO's eastern flank needs to be strengthened because Russia's aggressive policy has not, unfortunately, ended," Morawiecki told a news conference as he commented on U.S. President Donald Trump's Monday meeting with Russia's President Vladimir Putin.

"This aggression hasn't diminished in any way. President Trump must have come to the same conclusions," Morawiecki said.

"When exactly was President Trump compliant? I didn't notice that, be it in the context of issues concerning the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, or other issues too. Actually, in all his earlier comments, Mr Trump has clearly criticised the construction of the Northern pipeline," said the polish PM.

"The same thing goes with the issue of Crimea annexation, when there were concerns that Mr Trump may recognize the annexation. No such thing happened. Regarding the context of Russian invasion on Ukraine and fighting in Donbas - again the concerns were unjustified," said Morawiecki.

"Therefore, it seems that the leaders of those two key countries have stuck to their standpoints. Unfortunately, President Putin also sticks to his standpoint and was rather reluctant to take a step back, especially regarding the most important elements of our geopolitics, particularly issues regarding events taking place close to our borders," he concluded.

"If he had agreed to some concessions, however, a much more optimistic scenarios would follow. Apparently, both leaders didn't reach an agreement during this meeting, regarding potential concessions on Russian's part, and President Trump also remained exactly where he stood. Any speculations regarding potential American concessions to Russia didn't turn out to be true," said Polish PM at a press conference on Tuesday.

Trump drew outrage back home from Democrats and Republicans alike for refusing at the Helsinki summit to accept the conclusion of U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies that Russia meddled in a the 2016 election to help him win.

He said nothing in public at his summit to criticise Russia over any of the issues - from Syria to Ukraine to the poisoning of a spy in England - that have brought relations between Moscow and the West to their lowest since the Cold War.

The friendly meeting was a notable contrast after a NATO summit last week at which Trump berated allies for failing to spend enough on defence, prompting Germany to say Europeans could no longer rely on the White House.

But Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, asked at a news conference if he was alarmed by the events, said on Tuesday that the worst fears of U.S. allies had not been borne out.

Before Trump's meeting with Putin in Helsinki, officials from NATO allies expressed worry that he could offer the Russian leader concessions over Western sanctions related to Ukraine, or over U.S. troop deployments in eastern Europe. Trump unexpectedly cancelled military exercises in Korea after meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last month.

Poland is the biggest former communist country in both the European Union and NATO, and has called for the alliance to boost its defences, especially after Russia seized Ukraine's Crimea peninsula in 2014.

Poland has repeatedly requested a permanent U.S. military presence on its soil and has offered up to $2 billion in funding for such a base. U.S. soldiers are now present on its soil through NATO's back-to-back rotation.

Last March, Poland signed its largest arms deal ever, agreeing with the United States to buy Raytheon Co's Patriot missile defence system for $4.75 billion. Its plan to boost air defences is aimed at deterring Russia, which has long opposed the formerly-communist countries' integration with NATO.

Autor: gf / Źródło: TVN24 International, Reuters, PAP