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Europe must take responsibility for its own security, says Polish minister
The Guardian ^ | 15th January 2025 | Shaun Walker

Posted on 01/15/2025 7:46:04 AM PST by Cronos

Europe must “take responsibility” for its own security, Poland has told its fellow EU member states, as Warsaw takes over the rotating presidency of the bloc at a time of increasing geopolitical uncertainty.

...“There is awareness among European countries that the next few months will be a very difficult time … That’s why we think that this particular moment is the right time to say loudly that it’s time to take responsibility for our future and our security,” said Poland’s Europe minister, Adam Szłapka.

“Security is something that we need to think about every day,” he said, adding that Poland defined European security in broad terms. “It’s not only about strengthening our defence industry capabilities. It’s also about internal security … about energy security and economic security.”

Poland has taken on the bloc’s rotating presidency before, but the country and the continent are experiencing a very different moment to that in 2011 when Warsaw was first in charge. Then, Poland had been an EU member for less than a decade; now, the country is one of the key European players in the response to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Poland’s historical experience with Russia has made it a longstanding hawk when it comes to European policy towards Moscow, and after years of being dismissed by many politicians in western Europe, Warsaw feels vindicated now that the full-scale invasion of Ukraine has prompted a major rethink of Russia policy across most of the continent.

“We've never been naive in terms of Russia. We were always trying to convince our partners that Russia is a real threat for our stability, our democracy, institutions and the security of the European Union … We were signalling these things for many years and I think only now it became something completely obvious to other countries too,”

(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on 01/15/2025 7:46:04 AM PST by Cronos
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To: Cronos

Translation: We still want to be leftist, globalist, social-engineers of European culture and society, but Trump may pull America out of this game.


2 posted on 01/15/2025 7:59:13 AM PST by PGR88
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To: Cronos
we think that this particular moment is the right time to say loudly that it’s time to take responsibility for our future and our security,” said Poland’s Europe minister, Adam Szłapka.

Thank you Adam Szłapka. This is the best way for Poland. I promise to take you bowling and buy you a big bag of Chruscikis the next time we meet.

3 posted on 01/15/2025 8:04:28 AM PST by JonPreston ( ✌ ☮️ )
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To: Cronos

Most Americans would agree with this guy. After two world wars, hundreds of thousands Americans dead and maimed, trillions of dollars spent, Americans have done quite enough rescuing Europeans from their propensity to have genocidal civil wars. Now after 100 years of this foreign entanglement, most Americans are ready to say goodbye, good luck, don’t call us again.


4 posted on 01/15/2025 8:14:39 AM PST by allendale
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To: allendale

We wouldn’t have gotten involved in WWII, until the Germans and Japs joined forces. If the conflict was strictly in Europe, most likely we would have stayed out.


5 posted on 01/15/2025 8:16:16 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: PGR88

Both sides in Poland agree on this. The OTHER side is totally opposed to “leftist, globalist, social-engineers”, to the extent of being hit by EU sanctions, and still hates Russia with an unmatched passion.


6 posted on 01/15/2025 8:18:42 AM PST by buwaya (Strategic imperatives )
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To: buwaya

Just like in the 1930s, Poland hates everybody, LOL!


7 posted on 01/15/2025 8:21:36 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: allendale
---- "After two world wars, hundreds of thousands Americans dead and maimed, trillions of dollars spent, Americans have done quite enough rescuing Europeans from their propensity to have genocidal civil wars."

And yet others would say that 'history proves that war is, in a certain sense, the habitual state of mankind, which is to say that human blood must flow without interruption somewhere or other on the globe, and that for every nation, peace is only a respite.'

Certainly, from our involvement in these last decades, Iraq. Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Sudan, Yemen, Serbia and Kosovo, and of course Ukraine in the moment and Taiwan looming large, suggest a 'habitual state of mankind.'

8 posted on 01/15/2025 8:24:13 AM PST by Worldtraveler once upon a time (Degrow government)
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To: PGR88
Translation: We still want to be leftist, globalist, social-engineers of European culture and society, but Trump may pull America out of this game.

The foreign policies of KO (Civic Platform, the current governing party) and PiS (Law and Justice, the anti globohomo party) are almost identical. KO even suspended the "right" of asylum to cope with the migrants Belarus is pushing against the Polish border.

9 posted on 01/15/2025 9:54:27 AM PST by pierrem15 ("Massacrez-les, car le seigneur connait les siens" )
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To: pierrem15

I support Konfederacja.


10 posted on 01/15/2025 9:56:05 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: allendale
Sounds nice but the real world doesn't work that way. Leaving Europe would mean consolidation of a bloc encompassing all of Eurasia against the United States.

Having a foolish neighbor who doesn't clear brush but whose house catches fire is still a threat to yours.

11 posted on 01/15/2025 9:57:05 AM PST by pierrem15 ("Massacrez-les, car le seigneur connait les siens" )
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To: dfwgator

Konfederacja and PiS are currently leading in the polls I believe.


12 posted on 01/15/2025 9:58:15 AM PST by pierrem15 ("Massacrez-les, car le seigneur connait les siens" )
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To: pierrem15
Don't mess with Ewa!


13 posted on 01/15/2025 10:02:21 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: allendale

There is the problem - if Europe does get its own army and then coalesces into a country, it is then a rival


14 posted on 01/16/2025 3:31:55 AM PST by Cronos
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To: dfwgator

I don’t think that’s fair - Poland hated its two erstwhile partitioners - Germany and Russia - both of whom denied its right to exist.

It didn’t hate the other countries - and Pilsudski wanted an alliance of states between Germany and Russia to counterbalance those two. If he HAD succeeded, then the Bloodlands would never have happened


15 posted on 01/16/2025 3:34:05 AM PST by Cronos
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To: Cronos

I was referring more to the post-Piłsudski government. They hated the Germans, but they really hated the Russians, to the point that Britain and France couldn’t get the alliance with Russia, because the Poles made it clear in no uncertain terms they would never accept Russian troops on Polish soil.

That gave Hitler the opening to make the deal with Stalin for the Non-Aggression Pact.


16 posted on 01/16/2025 6:01:19 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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