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Central Europe
July 7, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 13
Trump punches Poland’s happy buttons with first European speech
Wojciech Kosc and Nick Allen in Warsaw
The US stands firmly behind the key Nato article invoking unconditional solidarity if any member of the alliance is attacked, President Donald Trump proclaimed to the applause of a large crowd in Warsaw on July 6, before travelling to Germany for possibly tense talks with his European partners and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In a 40-minute speech on the capital’s central Krasinskich Square – his first in Europe since being elected last November – Trump hit all the right notes for a crowd of some 15,000 people eager for an affirmation of Poland’s painful past, the challenges of its present day, and its hopeful future.
“A strong Poland is a blessing to the nations of Europe, and they know that. A strong Europe is
a blessing to the West and to the world,” said Trump, going as far as to hail Poland as the “soul of Europe”.
The US leader arrived for a 16-hour stay in the former Eastern Bloc country ahead of the G20 summit meeting in Hamburg on July 7. In Warsaw he met a sympathetic President Andrzej Duda and cheering crowds that were reportedly bussed in from across Poland by the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party.
Trump’s brief visit lived up to the expectations
of the Polish government, which also received a promise of a gas supply deal so that it cannot be held “hostage” by any single supplier.
Trump drew a crowd of some 15,000 in Warsaw on July 6, although many were report- edly bussed in by the ruling PiS party.
In his speech, Trump made sure he touched on some key current themes, including the West’s tense relations with Russia. While mindful not to overly antagonise Moscow ahead of his meeting with Putin the next day, he took a measured swing at Poland’s neighbour before moving quickly on to mutual concerns about extremism and terrorism.
“We urge Russia to cease its destabilising activi- ties in Ukraine and elsewhere, and its support for hostile regimes — including Syria and Iran — and to instead join the community of responsible na- tions in our fight against common enemies and in defence of civilisation itself,” he said.
Earlier in the day he had hinted that Moscow’s leverage over Poland and other countries from the region in terms of gas supplies could end with LNG deals with the US companies, which, Trump said, will never “use energy to coerce your na- tions, and we cannot allow others to do so”.
Trump and Duda both said new deals – or even
a long-term contract – for gas supplies from the US will be signed before long. Poland received the first cargo of LNG from the US company Cheniere Energy in June. The country is hoping to become a gas hub for Eastern Europe, which it plans to bring together under the Three Seas Initiative, a regional undertaking of 12 East European coun- tries to bolster trade and infrastructure invest- ment. The leaders of the 12 states were in War- saw on July 6 for a Three Seas Initiative summit, which Trump also attended.