Polish foreign minister does not rule out sending troops to Ukraine

6 months ago 27

Poland is not ruling out sending troops to Ukraine, but it will not “show its hand” to leave Putin wondering what NATO’s next steps will be, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski told the media.

Speaking to BBC World during his visit to the US, Sikorski highlighted Warsaw’s robust defence measures amid Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine, including its leadership in defence spending.

“We are spending the biggest proportion of our GDP (on defence) in NATO, 4% of GDP, and we might go higher next year,” he said.

Although Sikorski does not believe that Moscow attacking NATO is a very likely scenario, he conceded that Putin was irresponsible enough to invade Ukraine, for which he is now considered a war criminal.

When asked about French President Emmanuel Macron reiterating that he would not rule out sending troops to Ukraine, Sikorski did not explicitly say that Poland would certainly not send its troops there. He advocated for maintaining an aura of uncertainty to keep Putin guessing about possible Western responses.

“It is good to make Putin wonder what we will do and not always reassure him that we won’t do certain things,” he said.

Macron also did not rule out the deployment of NATO forces in Ukraine during the February Ukraine summit in Paris. Still, his statement was met with a backlash from most European NATO states, with several capitals, including Berlin, Warsaw and Madrid, rejecting his remarks.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk rejected the notion that there were plans to involve the Polish troops directly in the war, saying he “does not expect to send troops to Ukraine.”

“I think we should not speculate today about the future, whether something will happen to change that,” he said.

Earlier this year, Sikorski thanked the countries that had sent their troops to Ukraine to help train Ukrainian troops and other activities.

Sikorski is a favourite to be nominated as the next Polish EU commissioner. Tusk said in March that if, according to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s plans for the new Commission included a defence commissioner, it would be “an interesting proposal” for his foreign minister.

However, things may not go so smoothly, as the cabinet will have to seek the president’s approval before nominating a commissioner, according to a new law passed last October that regulates cooperation between the president, the government and parliament.

President Andrzej Duda is a former member of PiS (ECR), the main opposition party and many experts believe he is more likely to support Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, the PiS candidate for the next commissioner than the government-appointed Sikorski.

(Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | Euractiv.pl)