Polish Minister of National Defense: Only determination and strength can stop the intensification of Russian aggression
In an interview with Polish Radio, The Minister of National Defense of Poland, Antoni Macierewicz, said that the current threat from Russia requires a resolute response.
“Only decisiveness and strength can stop the strengthening of Russian aggression,” he said, adding that because of this, the decisions made at the NATO summit in Warsaw to strengthen the eastern flank of the alliance were very important.
The Polish minister stressed that tensions in the region have increased since Russia invaded Georgia in 2008. According to him, the world is becoming increasingly convinced that “Moscow does not respect the norm of international law and, as a rule, uses force to divide territory.”
According to Macierewicz, it is also necessary involve Polish troops in the fight against the Islamic State on the southern flank.
The head of the Polish Ministry of Defense noted that if it were not for the stability of the Polish nation, within the context of Poland needing to increase the strength of its army and while the alliance with the U.S. is in Warsaw's state interests, there wouldn’t be the current security guaranteed by the presence of NATO and U.S. troops in Poland.
“I want to remind you that as recently as May 2016 there could be no NATO troops in Poland, as one of the European states protested against this [Germany]. The soldiers were supposed to be in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Romania, but not in Poland,” said Macierewicz. So in the end, it didn’t happen, noted Macierewicz.
The deployment of the NATO battalion in Poland began in November 2016.